In August 2023, the DOJ indicted Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, the developers of the Ethereum-based smart contract protocol Tornado Cash, for alleged money laundering, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, and violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
On April 5, 2024, DEF filed an amicus brief supporting Storm’s motion to dismiss the indictment—arguing that holding developers or front-end providers criminally liable for third-party misuse of their technology is legally flawed, as smart contracts operate autonomously once deployed. And further contending that applying money transmitter laws to decentralized technologies misinterprets the law and risks chilling innovation in the DeFi ecosystem.
Status: Settled