More than 65 crypto advocacy groups are urging Trump to stop the DOJ retrial of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, claiming open-source software isn’t a crime and pushing for clearer, modernized crypto regulations and developer protections.

More than 65 crypto and civil-liberties organizations have sent a joint letter to U.S. President Donald Trump urging his administration and the Department of Justice to drop plans for a retrial of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm on money-laundering and sanctions-related charges, arguing that writing and publishing open‑source code should not be treated as a crime. The letter frames the Storm case as a precedent-setting fight over whether developers of noncustodial, open-source protocols can be held criminally liable for how others use their software, and calls instead for updated, clearer digital-asset regulations and explicit protections for software developers. Storm, a co-founder of the Tornado Cash privacy protocol, was indicted in August 2023 in the Southern District of New York on charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions (IEEPA), and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, based on allegations that Tornado Cash was used to launder more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds tied to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. After a multi-week trial produced a partial mistrial, with jurors deadlocked on the money-laundering and sanctions counts, U.S. prosecutors moved to retry him on those unresolved charges, and have been seeking a new trial date while Storm’s legal team pursues a motion for acquittal. Advocacy groups including the DeFi Education Fund and other industry coalitions argue that Storm’s work on a noncustodial protocol did not give him control over user funds and therefore should not be treated as operating a money-transmitting business, warning that aggressive criminal theories could chill open-source development and privacy tools in the U.S. crypto ecosystem.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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