Tornado Cash to Be Released on Bail by Dutch Court

After spending over nine months in prison on suspicions that he helped facilitate money laundering, the creator of Tornado Cash, Alex Pertsev, will be released under the supervision of the authorities.

Tornado Cash to Be Released on Bail

Eléonore Blanc, the founder of the cryptocurrency teaching website CryptoCanal, who was present at the court hearing, stated that the cryptocurrency programmer would be released on April 26 but would be subject to surveillance. This indicates that he will be able to wait for his trial from the comfort of his own home.

Blanc stated on Thursday that the defendant would be allowed to wait for his trial at home with electronic monitoring beginning the following Wednesday, the 26th.

“The most important thing is that he is free to walk around and work on his defense, something that was extremely difficult for him to do while he was detained,” she said.

To be more explicit, the developer of Tornado Cash will be released when the authorities have installed surveillance devices in his residence.

Additionally, the authorities will need Pertsev to wear an ankle bracelet so that they can track his activities.

On May 24, an investigation hearing will take place in a Dutch court. During this hearing, a judge will evaluate Pertsev’s residency status.

The declaration was made after a court in the Netherlands rejected the developer’s request to be released under monitoring in November of the previous year. The court reasoned that Pertsev constituted a risk of fleeing the country.

In February, the bail application submitted by the developer was rejected once more.

According to Bitcoin developer Sjors Provoost, who was also present in court today, there were “no new revelations” brought to light throughout the proceeding.

Provoost noted in a Twitter thread that “Pertsev maintains that he did everything that he could do to prevent criminal abuse within the constraints of a decentralized system.” “Pertsev maintains that he did everything that he could do,” Provoost wrote.

The prosecutor anticipates that the use of smart contracts will prevent deposits of illicit proceeds, which is practically the same thing as a ban.

Pertsev Faces Money Laundering Charges Over Tornado Cash

Pertsev was taken into custody by Dutch police in August of last year on suspicion of involvement in the cryptocurrency mixing business Tornado Cash days after the United States Treasury imposed sanctions on the cryptocurrency mixing service.

During that time period, Dutch public prosecutor Martine Boerlage made an announcement during a court that Pertsev would be charged with money laundering. Because he allegedly penned the code for the Tornado Cash system, he is being accused of making it easier to process illegal funds.

According to recent reports, the United States Treasury has added Tornado Cash to its list of Specially Designated Nationals, effectively prohibiting citizens of the United States from making use of this mixer.

The Department of Defense asserted that the mixer “has been used to launder more than $7bn worth of virtual currency since its creation in 2019.”

The fact that the cryptocurrency mixing service developed by Pertsev uses a wide variety of methods to conceal the origin of the cryptocurrency that is being used is one of the features that has drawn the ire of regulatory authorities.

During this time, a significant portion of the Crypto community has voiced their disapproval of the arrest of Pertsev, arguing that it runs against the principles underlying free code.

“They put a man in jail because bad people used his open-source code,” Ryan Sean Adams, the creator of Mythos Capital and Bankless, tweeted. “They put a man in jail because his code was used by bad people.” “In no truly free society could something like this be tolerated.”

Alex Pertsev Dutch Court Tornado tornado cash