The EthereumEthereum Basis has mentioned it is going to donate $1.25 million to assist Twister Money major developer Alexey Pertsev's authorized protection.
In a Wednesday publish on X, previously referred to as Twitter, the non-profit mentioned that writing code was "not a crime," and posted a hyperlink for these wanting so as to add donations.
Pertsev is among the major builders behind the Twister Money app, a coin mixer the U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned in 2022 as a result of they mentioned criminals had been utilizing it to launder money.
The EF is donating $1.25M to the authorized protection of Alexey Pertsev.
Privateness is regular, and writing code shouldn’t be a criminal offense.
You may contribute to @alex_pertsev's protection right here: https://t.co/shWFNoDJ9g https://t.co/ITvEiRkAGt
— Ethereum Basis (@ethereumfndn) February 26, 2025
In 2022, Dutch feds arrested Netherlands-based Pertsev and hit the Russian nationwide with cash laundering prices.
A Dutch decide at s-Hertogenbosch courtroom final yr dominated that Twister Money was "intended for criminals," and a jury convicted Pertsev of laundering $1.2 billion in illicit belongings. He was sentenced to 64 months in jail.
Pertsev has since been launched below home arrest as he waits to attraction his sentence.
"Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime," the Basis mentioned on X (previously Twitter).
Twister Money allowed customers to anonymously ship and obtain ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency. However North Korean-sponsored actors used the app to cowl their tracks after hacking crypto protocols, in line with American feds.
The Twister Money case is controversial amongst privateness advocates—together with U.S. politicians—who’ve argued that sanctioning the app is an assault on civil liberties.
America's largest crypto change, publicly-traded Coinbase, funded a lawsuit towards the U.S. Division of Treasury, calling its sanctioning of the Ethereum mixing service an "unprecedented, overbroad action."
The Ethereum Basis is a non-profit group that helps all issues Ethereum, the community behind ETH. The org helps the builders engaged on the blockchain, and provides grants to these constructing Ethereum-based initiatives.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
