Updated October 10, 2026. This article was rewritten to reflect the trial verdict and everything that has happened in the case since. Earlier versions described the trial as still upcoming.
Roman Storm, a co-founder of the Ethereum privacy tool Tornado Cash, was tried in federal court in Manhattan in the summer of 2025. The jury reached a split verdict. More than a year later, the case is still unresolved: a ruling on Storm’s request to throw out his conviction is pending, and a retrial on the remaining charges is set for April 2027.
Here is what happened, where things stand now, and why developers and everyday crypto users keep paying attention.
What Tornado Cash is
Tornado Cash is a “mixer”: a set of smart contracts on Ethereum that pools deposits from many users and lets them withdraw to new wallet addresses. That breaks the public link between where funds came from and where they went. People use mixers for ordinary privacy, such as keeping a salary or donation history out of public view. Criminals have also used them to hide stolen funds.
In August 2022, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Tornado Cash, saying it had been used to launder more than $7 billion, including funds stolen by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. A federal appeals court later ruled in Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury that Tornado Cash’s immutable smart contracts could not be sanctioned as “property,” and on March 21, 2025, Treasury removed Tornado Cash from the sanctions list. That decision did not end the criminal case against Storm.
The charges
Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Storm in 2023 with three conspiracy counts:
- Conspiracy to commit money laundering, maximum 20 years in prison
- Conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), maximum 20 years
- Conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, maximum 5 years
The government alleged that Tornado Cash processed more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds and that Storm and his co-founders kept running and improving the service while knowing it was being used that way. Storm’s defense argued that he wrote open-source software, never had custody of users’ funds, and could not control how strangers used immutable code.
The 2025 trial and split verdict
The trial began in July 2025 before U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla. On August 6, 2025, the jury:
- Convicted Storm of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business
- Could not agree on the money laundering and sanctions counts, which ended in a mistrial on those two charges
The one conviction is on the least serious charge, with a maximum sentence of five years. Storm has not been sentenced and remains free on bail.
What has happened since
- September 30, 2025: Storm’s lawyers asked the judge to acquit him on the conviction (a “Rule 29” motion), arguing the evidence was legally insufficient.
- March 9, 2026: Prosecutors told the court they would retry the two deadlocked counts and asked for a trial in October 2026.
- April 9, 2026: Judge Failla heard more than three hours of argument on the acquittal motion. Much of it focused on whether Manhattan was the proper place to bring the case and whether keeping the service running counted as joining a criminal conspiracy. She did not rule from the bench.
- August 25, 2026: The judge postponed the retrial to April 26, 2027, with a final pretrial conference on April 20, 2027. The acquittal motion was still undecided.
- October 2026: Prosecutors pointed the court to a September 25, 2026 federal appeals ruling that upheld the convictions of the operator of Bitcoin Fog, an earlier Bitcoin mixer, arguing it supports their position on where the Storm case can be tried.
As of October 10, 2026, there is no ruling on the acquittal motion, no sentencing date, and the retrial remains scheduled for April 2027.
Why this case matters
The central question is how far responsibility extends for people who write and publish software they do not control once it is deployed. Supporters of Storm argue that a conviction treats writing privacy code as a crime and could push developers away from building privacy tools in the United States. Prosecutors argue the case is about people who operated a service, earned from it, and kept it running while knowing it was moving stolen money.
For developers, the unlicensed money transmitting conviction is the part to watch. If it stands, it shapes how U.S. law may treat teams that build and maintain non-custodial protocols. If the judge overturns it, or an appeal later does, that would narrow the risk.
For everyday users, using privacy tools is not itself a crime, but funds that pass through mixers can draw extra scrutiny from exchanges, which may freeze or question deposits linked to them. Understanding where your coins have been matters.
What to watch next
- Judge Failla’s ruling on the acquittal motion
- Whether the April 26, 2027 retrial goes ahead, and on which counts
- Sentencing on the conviction, if it stands, and any appeal
We will update this article when the court rules.
Sources
- DL News: Storm guilty of money transmission, jurors deadlocked on most severe charges (August 2025)
- DeFi Education Fund: U.S. v. Storm 2026 update (March 2026)
- CoinDesk: U.S. requests October retrial for Roman Storm (March 10, 2026)
- The Rage: No acquittal for Storm today (April 9, 2026)
- Crypto Briefing: Roman Storm’s retrial postponed to April 26, 2027 (August 26, 2026)
- Cointelegraph: DOJ cites Bitcoin Fog ruling against Storm acquittal bid (October 7, 2026)
- U.S. Treasury: Tornado Cash delisting (March 21, 2025)
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Court cases change; check the latest filings and consult a qualified attorney about your own situation. DynamicACG does not endorse any party to this case.