**Most Influential: Roman Storm**

The trial of Roman Storm, one of the developers and co-founders of embattled crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, has left many in the crypto community reeling. While the industry celebrated a shift towards regulatory clarity in 2025, with the appointment of crypto-friendly regulators and the end of dozens of Biden-era probes into major crypto companies, Storm's trial is evidence that regulation by prosecution is still alive and kicking.

**The Case Against Storm**

Storm was arrested in 2023 and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges carried a maximum combined sentence of 45 years in prison. His co-founder, Alexey Pertsev, had already been arrested and charged with similar crimes in the Netherlands, where he was found guilty of money laundering under Dutch law.

**The Trial**

At his Manhattan trial in July, Storm's lawyers argued that he and his co-founders had created a tool with legitimate, privacy-preserving purposes, which bad actors happened to use for nefarious purposes. Prosecutors countered that Storm and his colleagues knew full well that hackers and scammers were using Tornado Cash and chose not to stop them.

**The Verdict**

After several days of deliberation, the jury came back with just a single guilty verdict on the unlicensed money transmitting conspiracy charge (the least serious of all three charges). On the rest, they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. At the time of publication, prosecutors have not yet indicated whether they intend to retry Storm on the hung charges.

**The Impact**

Storm's case has drawn much attention and ire from many in the crypto community, particularly in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sphere. Trade groups and policy advocates like the DeFi Education Fund and the Solana Policy Institute have vocally opposed Storm's prosecution, submitting amicus briefs and donating to his defense.

**A Chilling Effect**

The verdict will have a chilling effect on innovation, particularly for developers working on privacy-preserving technologies like mixers and zero-knowledge protocols. Even if the primary purpose of what you develop is for good and is beneficial to society, the Roman Storm case very much indicates that if a certain amount of third-party misuse happens, there could be criminal liability.

**A Culture of Fear**

Storm's prosecution has "contributed to a culture of fear" among DeFi developers. At base, what Roman did was provide a privacy solution that the Ethereum community wanted and asked for, and that Github gave him a grant to work on.

**Regulatory Clarity**

The crux of the issue is that, while messages like Galeotti's and Blanche's are a helpful sign of what the current administration is thinking when it comes to crypto regulation and enforcement, they're far from a permanent fix. "We need to permanently change the laws," Tuminelli said. "We need to actually fix the [money transmitting statute] and provide real, permanent changes to how the Department [of Justice] is able to use that law."

**The Way Forward**

Policy insiders say the negotiations for a market structure bill are likely to drag into the New Year as Democrats and Republicans continue to iron out disagreements about how the industry should be regulated. "If you're a lawmaker, and you are worried about things that are going on in the space, you're worried that consumers are not protected, you're worried that illicit finance runs rampant — okay, then what are you doing about it?" Tuminelli asked.

**The Human Element**

Storm's case is far from over. A hearing in front of District Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the SDNY is currently scheduled for January 22. During that hearing, the court will consider the defense's motion to acquit Storm on the three charges against him, and will hear whether the government intends to retry him on the two hung charges.

**A Fight for Freedom**

"We tend to see this as some kind of wider battle, but there's a real human being whose liberty is at stake," Urbellis said. "This is a fight for freedom."