Morning Minute: Tornado Cash Developer Found Guilty (Partially)

Elsewhere, crypto majors are soaring on reports that Trump will sign an Executive Order today allowing crypto in 401(k)s.

GM!

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Leaving reasons to be optimistic about the future.

That guilty charge was for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business, but the jury was deadlocked on the more serious charges of money laundering and sanctions violations.

Storm was accused by the DOJ of enabling North Korea’s Lazarus Group to launder over $1B through Tornado Cash. Prosecutors claimed he knew the risks and “looked the other way.”

But the jury didn’t buy that narrative, refusing to convict on the headline charges.

He now faces sentencing for the one guilty count.

Notably, Judge Failla denied the motion to remand him to jail, declaring:

“There is a lot of fighting left in this case before sentencing, and I think Mr. Storm will stay to fight it.”

“It’s a big win. The ‘1960’ charge is bullshit and we’re going to fight it all the way. You know how President Trump said ‘fight, fight, fight’? We’ll do that too.” - Roman Storm

“Roman Storm was convicted for conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business under Section 1960. The jury was deadlocked on money laundering and sanctions. DOJ will decide in the coming days if it wants to retry those charges in a new trial. A sad day for DeFi.” - Jake Chervinsky, crypto legal expert

This is the first time a U.S. court has criminally convicted a crypto developer simply for writing code that enables privacy.

It sets a precedent, though a limited one.

The jury’s refusal to convict on sanctions and laundering shows the legal system isn’t fully on board with the idea that developers are responsible for how others use their tools.

Still, this guilty verdict sends a signal to open-source devs working on financial privacy that although the US is embracing crypto, there will be lines drawn in the sand.

But there is hope for those who believe Roman Storm should not be found guilty.

There will be a retrial and likely appeals after that, and pending how much progress has been made in the US on Project Crypto (especially with respect to dev rights), the environment may be very different.

Don’t count Roman out just yet…

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

In Corporate Treasuries

In Memes

Section dedicated to headlines in the AI sector of crypto:

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

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