A petition has been submitted by the DeFi Education Fund to White House crypto czar David Sacks, requesting that charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm be dropped by prosecutors.
The DeFi Education Fund, a crypto lobby group, submitted a petition to the Trump administration, urging it to end what it calls the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers, including Roman Storm, who created the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.
In a letter to White House crypto czar David Sacks on April 28, the group urged President Donald Trump to immediately halt the Biden-era Department of Justice’s “lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”
The letter specifically mentioned the prosecution of Storm, stating that authorities charged him in August 2023 for allegedly helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash. His trial remains scheduled for July, while his fellow co-founder, Roman Semenov, is still at large and believed to be in Russia.
The DeFi Education Fund stated that the Department of Justice is trying to hold software developers like Storm criminally liable for how others use their code. They argued that this approach is “not only absurd in principle, but also sets a precedent that could potentially chill all crypto development in the United States.
The group also urged the administration to recognize the prosecution as contradictory to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) guidance issued during Trump’s first term. That guidance clarified that developers of self-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols do not qualify as money transmitters.
They argued, “This kind of legal environment doesn’t just chill innovation — it freezes it.” The letter also added that politically motivated enforcement empowers overreach, placing every open-source developer at risk, regardless of the industry.
Stakes Reach an All-Time High
In January, a federal court in Texas ruled that the Treasury had overstepped its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash.
The group thanked Trump for supporting the industry and for stating his goal to make America the “crypto capital of the planet.”
However, they added that Trump cannot achieve his goal if the government continues prosecuting developers for creating tools that power the technology.
We ask President Trump to protect American software developers, restore legal clarity, and end this unlawful DOJ overreach. The job’s not finished, and the stakes could not be higher
He added that no legal or policy justification exists for prosecuting software developers who launch non-custodial smart contract protocols.
At the time of writing, 232 industry executives and developers—including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, and Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko—had signed the petition.
