Tornado Cash developer Aleksey Pertsev released from detention with electronic monitoring

The developer of Tornado Cash has been released from his pre-trial detention. Aleksey Pertsev has negotiated a release on the condition of electronic monitoring. 

The developer of Tornado Cash, Aleksey Pertsev, negotiated the end of his pre-trial detention. Pertsev is coming out of prison this Friday, on condition of electronic monitoring. Pertsev announced the upcoming release from detention on X, restarting the discussion of the repercussions of creating code. The previous appeal on July 12 was rejected, leaving Pertsev detailed and still attempting to regain his freedom.

Dear Friends, on Friday 7 February at 10 am I will be free! It is not real freedom, but it is better than prison. Today, a Dutch court suspended my pretrial detention under the condition of electronic monitoring. This will give me a chance to work on my appeal and fight for…

— Alexey Pertsev (@alex_pertsev) February 6, 2025

Just after the announcement, Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin commented on the message with a single word, ‘Milady.’ Buterin, who has been presenting with a Milady avatar for weeks now, previously referenced the Milady community as being mutually supportive. Buterin has been an advocate for Tornado Cash before and has promised to support and fight for the freedom of Pertsev and Roman Storm.  

Pertsev was detained back in 2022 and sentenced in the Netherlands in May 2024, and has since started serving a five-year sentence. The Dutch court found him guilty of not preventing bad actors from using the Tornado Cash mixer. After the release, Pertsev aims to appeal his sentencing. The main argument is that privacy is not intentional money laundering and that anyone can code tools freely.

TORN token starts a price recovery

Following the news, the Tornado Cash (TORN) token went vertical, trading near a 24-hour peak of $11.52. TORN recently peaked above $25 in January, and has previously held vertical rallies when anticipating good news for Pertsev and the activity of the token mixer. 

TORN rallied to a peak of over $34 after a US court overturned the ban on using the mixed on November 27, 2024. The token was seen as having a significant potential for recovery, with previous prices at $120 during peak times. Freeing Pertsev and removing the claims of money laundering from the mixer may further raise the token’s price.

Tornado Cash was never without users, and was one of the signature moves of North Korean hackers. 

While the mixer makes losses for Web3 users irretrievable, supporters of Tornado Cash treat the issue of creating code as free speech. Tornado Cash is simply an Ethereum smart contract, which mixes the coins, making their origin untraceable. The contract is used for some forms of money laundering, but the intention of the code was to simply provide confidentiality. 

Tornado Cash was linked to nearly 20% of exploits in the last quarter of 2024, mixing funds from both big hacks and thefts from personal wallets. Additionally, Tornado Cash users have used the mixer to ‘dust’ wallets and addresses, which has affected centralized exchange users. Any close links to wallets interacting with Tornado Cash can lead users to being flagged as money launderers and have their accounts frozen.

The overly-strict regulations attempting to target privacy technology have ended up hurting legitimate crypto users, as EU brokerages now require information on the origins of each deposit.

A positive verdict on Tornado Cash may have an effect on similar privacy technologies. Currently, privacy coins have faced regulatory backlash and delistings from most major exchanges.

Tornado Cash deposits are making a comeback

Tornado Cash continues to host several hundred deposits and withdrawals, though still lower than its peak activity in 2022. 

Most deposits come from Ethereum, with a slight expansion of mixing tokens from BNB Smart Chain. The mixer carries 149K ETH, with a gradual increase in assets in the past two years. The mixer also 74,900 USDC, which is stuck and unusable. 

Another 19.4M DAI has been sent to Tornado Cash, along with 83 WBTC. The mixed also retains 31,7K USDT, a token that is also more rarely mixed compared to the 2022 period. 

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