- Charges Against Roman Storm and Tornado Cash
- What Is Tornado Cash?
- Criminal Use Statistics
- Conclusion
The case of Roman Storm, one of the developers behind the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, has become one of the most high-profile trials in blockchain and crypto regulation. After three and a half weeks of hearings, a federal jury in Manhattan returned a partial verdict. On the two most serious charges—money laundering and violating international sanctions—the jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision. Storm was found guilty of only one of the three counts: conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, which carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison.
Charges Against Roman Storm and Tornado Cash
In August 2022, U.S. prosecutors accused Roman Storm and co-founder Roman Semenov of knowingly helping cybercriminals and hackers—including North Korean state-backed entities—use Tornado Cash to launder more than $1 billion in stolen cryptocurrency. According to the indictment, the service provided an anonymous environment where criminals could obscure the origin of their funds, evading detection by law enforcement.
The charges also included violations of U.S. sanctions, as Tornado Cash was allegedly used to move funds linked to sanctioned entities, including the Lazarus Group—a hacking unit associated with the North Korean government. Prosecutors argued that, despite having the ability to implement safeguards and prevent abuse, the developers deliberately chose not to, failing to implement mandatory KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering), measures.
What Is Tornado Cash?
Tornado Cash is a decentralized cryptocurrency mixer that runs on Ethereum and other blockchains via smart contracts. Its purpose is to mix users’ funds, breaking the on-chain link between sender and recipient addresses to enhance financial privacy. A user deposits cryptocurrency into Tornado Cash, which enters a common pool; it can later be withdrawn in a different transaction using a unique cryptographic identifier, making blockchain transactions significantly harder to trace.
While this design attracted legitimate users seeking privacy, the service also became a popular tool for criminals to launder stolen or illicitly obtained digital assets. Tornado Cash branded itself as a privacy-protection tool, but in U.S. legal filings and sanctions lists, it was described as a service that systematically facilitated criminal activity.
Criminal Use Statistics
The extent of Tornado Cash’s criminal use remains a matter of debate. According to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, the mixer processed $137.6 million worth of crypto sent to NFT marketplaces and was the preferred laundering tool for 52% of all NFT scam proceeds. At the same time, Elliptic estimates that only about 20% of all Tornado Cash flows (roughly $1.5 billion) were linked to criminal activity, with the majority of transactions lacking clear evidence of illicit intent.
Other experts highlight that the mixer was involved in laundering funds from major cyberattacks, including the $620 million Ronin Bridge hack and the $100 million Harmony Bridge hack—funds that vanished through Tornado Cash within hours.
An analysis of transaction activity before and after U.S. sanctions were imposed on Tornado Cash shows an 85% drop in total volume. Between February and July 2022, the service processed around $2.8 billion, compared to about $425 million over the same period in 2023. However, while the absolute volume of illicit transactions fell by about 77%, their share of total activity increased in percentage terms.
Conclusion
The verdict in Roman Storm’s case is only partial—he was convicted solely of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Still, the trial has drawn public attention to the complex challenges of regulating and policing the cryptocurrency industry, as well as the delicate balance between protecting user privacy and preventing technology from being exploited for crime. As a technical tool for anonymizing blockchain transactions, Tornado Cash continues to fuel debate over the responsibilities of its developers and users within the crypto community.
