- Alexey Pertsev is the developer of the banned Tornado Cash platform.
- Pertsev was arrested by Dutch officials in August 2022
- Previously, a Dutch court had ruled to detain Pertsev until his next hearing in late April.
Tornado Cash (TORN) price is up 15% after a Dutch judge ruled to release Alexey Pertsev, the developer of the mixing service Tornado Cash.
Despite Tornado Cash being banned, its native token TORN has been performing quite well recently. The token has appreciated by over 30% in the last seven days.
Alexey Pertsev arrest and detention
Dutch authorities arrested Alexey Pertsev in August 2022 almost immediately after the United States Treasury Department sanctioned Tornado Cash.
The US Treasury Department alleged that several hacker groups including North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group used the crypto mixer to launder stolen assets. It asserted that hackers laundered over $7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies since 2019 including the $80 million stolen from the Ethereum-based stablecoin protocol Beanstalk Farms in April 2022.
However, the Tornado Cash ban attracted criticism from several players including from crypto advocacy organization Coin Center which filed a legal complaint in October 2022, asserting that the Treasury was overstepping its power with the sanctions targeting crypto investors in the US. Coinbase also recently backed a lawsuit by six complaints against Tornado Cash.
Two months ago, a Dutch court ruled to keep Alexey Pertsev detained until his next hearing later in April although that has now changed after a judge ruled that he would be released though under strict conditions.