According to Blockworks, Alexey Pertsev, the creator of the Tornado Cash crypto privacy mixer, will be released from jail next week and await trial at home.
- Eléonore Blanc, Pertsev’s wife, shared the news over Telegram that the developer would be coming home next week.
- Pertsev was arrested in Amsterdam in August 2022, shortly after the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, creating unprecedented restrictions against the development and use of smart contract code.
- Despite no formal charges against him at the time, Pertsev was denied bail and forced to remain imprisoned for months. It was later discovered that Pertsev had worked at a Russian firm called Digital Security, which had been flagged for providing support to the nation’s FSB.
- His arrest sparked outrage across the crypto industry for the severe treatment of someone who had only developed software.
- Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire raised concerns about the Treasury Department’s precedent in blocking the functioning of open-source software, saying “It raises extraordinary questions about privacy and security on the internet and the future of public internet digital currency.”
- Despite the sanctions, Tornado Cash is still technically accessible and continues to generate volume. Earlier this month, over $600,000 in stablecoins from the 2021 Maker DAO hack were sent through the protocol.
