Donald Trump Urged to End Prosecution of Developers

In a letter dated April 28 addressed to Sacks, the group urged President Donald Trump to “take immediate action to halt the Biden-era Department of Justice’s unlawful campaign to criminalize open-source software development.”

The letter specifically highlighted the case of Roman Storm, who was charged in August 2023 with allegedly helping launder over $1 billion through Tornado Cash. His trial is scheduled for July, while his fellow co-founder, Roman Semenov, remains at large and is believed to be in Russia.

The DeFi Education Fund argued that in Storm’s case, the Department of Justice is attempting to hold software developers criminally responsible for how others use their code—something they described as “not only absurd in principle but a dangerous precedent that could cripple crypto development in the United States.”

The group also emphasized that the prosecution contradicts earlier guidance from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) during Trump’s first term, which established that developers of self-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols are not considered money transmitters.

“This kind of legal environment doesn’t just stifle innovation—it freezes it,” the letter warned. The group added that such an environment “encourages politically-motivated enforcement and places every open-source developer at risk, regardless of industry.”

Notably, in January, a federal court in Texas ruled that the Treasury Department had exceeded its authority by sanctioning Tornado Cash.

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

The DeFi Education Fund thanked President Trump for his continued support of the crypto industry and his ambition to make the United States “the crypto capital of the world.” However, they stressed that this vision would not be achievable if developers continued to face prosecution simply for building tools that enable blockchain technology.

“We urge President Trump to protect American software developers, restore legal clarity, and end the Department of Justice’s unlawful overreach. The job isn’t done yet, and the stakes have never been higher.”

Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer of Variant Fund, described the Justice Department’s case against Storm as “an outdated remnant of the Biden administration’s war on crypto.” He added, “There is no legal or policy justification for prosecuting software developers for creating non-custodial smart contract protocols.”

As of the time of writing, the petition had garnered 232 signatures from industry leaders and developers, including Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, and Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko, among others.