‘Freedom is priceless’: Tornado Cash’s Alexey Pertsev released from prison

Alexey Pertsev, the Tornado Cash developer convicted of money laundering in 2024, has been released from prison under electronic monitoring as he continues his legal battle.

The 31-year-old Russian national, sentenced to 64 months in a Dutch prison last May, announced his release in a February 6 post on X, stating, “Dear Friends, on Friday 7 February at 10 am I will be free! It is not real freedom, but it is better than prison.”

His release follows multiple denied bail requests and ongoing debates over the legal treatment of privacy-focused crypto developers. A Dutch court suspended his pretrial detention, allowing him to focus on appealing his conviction.

Pertsev was release on the condition that he be electronically monitored.

Illicit transactions

At Pertsev’s two-day trial, the 30-year-old Russian citizen defended his role in the crypto mixer by explaining that the technology, especially smart contracts, made it impossible for him to trace the users who employed the service to anonymize their transactions. 

The prosecution countered, asserting that Tornado Cash’s code facilitated money laundering by enabling the North Korean-linked Lazarus Group to transfer stolen funds across various wallets, effectively concealing their origins.

Pertsev was found guilty of failing to prevent illicit transactions through Tornado Cash, a crypto-mixing protocol sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for allegedly enabling over $7 billion in money laundering.