Outside Source
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Pertsev’s lawyer explained how bail will help Pertsev in his efforts to coordinate a defense.
Analysis
Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev’s lawyer has told Cointelegraph that they “welcome the court’s decision” on Feb. 7 to suspend his pretrial detention, allowing Pertsev to make his case from outside prison.
Judges at the ‘s-Hertogenbosch Court found Pertsev guilty of money laundering on May 14, 2024 and sentenced him to five years behind bars. He’s accused of laundering $1.2 billion of illicit crypto on the Tornado Cash platform.
Pertsev has been in detention since his arrest in 2022. Previous appeals for bail were denied, along with attempts to provide Pertsev with a computer. His lawyer Judith de Boer previously called pre-trial detention “unacceptable” given the legal issues involved.
The Dutch court’s latest decision to grant bail is a “crucial step in safeguarding his right to a fair trial, as it grants the possibility to have access to resources such as something as basic as the internet,” de Boer told Cointelegraph.
Source: Alexey Pertsev
Pertsev’s lawyer further commented that the “key legal question is who should be held responsible for the potential misuse of a fully decentralized protocol.”
Is Pertsev responsible for the actions of Tornado Cash users?
Pertsev has argued that he should not be held liable for the actions of those who used his protocol for illicit activities. Roman Storm, a co-founder of Tornado Cash who is set to face trial in the US in April, similarly has argued that he is being “prosecuted for writing open-source code that enables private crypto transactions in a completely non-custodial manner.”
Tornado Cash is one of several “cryptocurrency mixers,” which can obscure the origins of cryptocurrencies operating on a public blockchain. Someone wishing to keep their crypto private can use the service to “mix” the potentially identifiable cryptocurrencies with large sums of other funds.
Advocates say that these services are primarily designed to ensure user privacy. Still, there have been numerous recorded incidences of illicit actors using the services to launder money, putting mixers squarely under the eye of law enforcement worldwide.
Related: What is a cryptocurrency mixer and how does it work?
“Historically, software developers were seen as neutral creators of tools and platforms, responsible for their technical functionality but not for how those tools were used,” Natalia Latka, director of public policy and regulatory affairs at blockchain analysis firm Merkle Science, told Cointelegraph.
However, she noted that this perspective has been shifting, “especially with the rise of decentralized networks that challenge traditional regulatory frameworks.”
De Boer warned that if this approach comes to apply to the industry as a whole, “the court has set a precedent that could stifle innovation and create legal uncertainty.”
She further questioned Pertsev’s conviction, saying that Tornado Cash is a privacy tool and “European privacy laws protect the right to financial privacy.”
De Boer also claimed that “it’s debatable whether Tornado Cash truly conceals the origin of funds,” which is a legal requirement for money laundering, because a public blockchain can “indicate the use of Tornado Cash, allowing regulated institutions to take appropriate action.”
Crypto community supports Pertsev
Privacy maximalism and personal choice have been core tenets of the cryptocurrency community from its inception, and Pertsev’s conviction carries serious implications for the industry.
Eléonore Blanc, founder of CryptoCanal — the events firm behind the ETHDam conference in Amsterdam — said that one can “easily extrapolate” and see how this case could affect other sectors of the blockchain industry.
Andrew Balthazor, a litigator with the legal firm Holland & Knight, previously told Cointelegraph, “Mr. Pertsev’s conviction reinforces the views of several governments that software developers who make their software available to the public will be held liable for the foreseeable consequences of the public’s use of that software.”
Crypto executives, activists and commentators have publicly supported Pertsev’s appeal. Some even created the JusticeDAO, which coordinates funding for his and Storm’s legal defense.
However, these funding efforts weren’t free of complications. In February 2024, American crowdfunding platform GoFundMe canceled a fundraiser dedicated to collecting legal fees for Storm and Pertsev.
Funding picked back up shortly after when Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Butern contributed to the fund in October 2024 and again in December.
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This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
