Paradigm commits $1.25 million to aid Tornado Cash co-founder in continued legal battle

Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang announced that the crypto venture capital firm will donate $1.25 million to support Tornado Cash developer  Roman Storm in his legal defense against U.S. prosecution.

“The prosecution’s case threatens to hold software developers criminally liable for the bad acts of third parties, which would have a chilling effect in crypto and beyond,” Huang wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday. “We must stand with [Storm].”

Storm co-founded Ethereum-based crypto mixer Tornado Cash with Roman Semenov, both of whom were charged by the U.S. Department of Justice with alleged money laundering-related charges in 2023.

Prosecutors claimed that Storm "knowingly facilitated” the laundering of over $1 billion in illicit funds on the crypto mixer, including money linked to North Korean cybercrime group Lazarus. The Tornado Cash founders each face up to 45 years in prison.

In Storm’s defense

In an X post on Jan. 23, Storm wrote that the prosecution embodies a “terrifying criminalization of privacy,” as he claims he is being charged for writing open-source code for private transactions in a non-custodial manner.

Earlier this month, a US court ordered the sanctions on Tornado Cash to be reversed — ruling that the crypto mixer should not be seen as “property” that can be sanctioned.

Despite the recent ruling, a New York court denied Storm’s motion to reconsider the legal action against the developer. 

“The Court recognized that ‘Mr. Storm argues that the Tornado Cash pool smart contracts were ‘immutable’ after May of 2020,’ but also recognized that ‘the indictment charges … that other aspects of the Tornado Cash service were not similarly free from tinkering,’” the court document said .

Ethereum co-founder  Vitalik Buterin , along with other members of the crypto community, called for U.S. President Donald Trump to help lift the charges against Storm after Trump signed an executive order to pardon Silk Road creator  Ross Ulbricht .

Storm’s court trial is set for April 14, 2025.