Tornado Cash dev Alexey Pertsev granted conditional release after months in custody

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Alexey Pertsev, a Tornado Cash developer, will be released from pretrial detention on February 7 under electronic monitoring conditions, according to his social media post.

Pertsev faces money laundering charges related to his involvement with Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service that was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in August 2022.

The Treasury alleged the platform was used to launder over $7 billion in digital assets, including $455 million stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group.

The case has sparked debate over developer liability and regulation of privacy-focused crypto tools.

Dutch prosecutors argued that while Tornado Cash operated as a decentralized protocol on Ethereum, its creators maintained control through a centralized web interface used by most users.

The crypto community has rallied behind Pertsev, with organizations like JusticeDAO raising funds for his legal defense. His case highlights tensions between privacy-preserving technologies and anti-money laundering regulations in the crypto sector.

Last May, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated 30 ETH to the Tornado Cash legal defenseand worked on developing a regulation-compliant crypto mixer.

In November, a federal appeals court found the Treasury’s sanctions on Tornado Cash unlawful, stressing limits on government regulatory power over decentralized technologies.

A US appeals court later ruled that OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash exceeded regulatory authority, adding another layer of complexity to the ongoing legal proceedings.

The fallout from the sanctions affected many users who found their funds locked or were blocked from exchanges due to previous interactions with sanctioned addresses.