Crypto Advocates Urge Trump to End Prosecution of Developers, Including Roman Storm

The DeFi Education Fund, a prominent crypto lobbying organization, has formally petitioned the Trump administration to intervene in what it calls the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers, specifically naming Roman Storm, co-founder of the crypto privacy tool Tornado Cash.

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

The petition focuses heavily on the ongoing prosecution of Roman Storm, who was indicted in August 2023 on charges of allegedly assisting in laundering over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency through Tornado Cash. His trial remains scheduled for July 2025, while his fellow co-founder, Roman Semenov, is still at large and believed to be residing in Russia.

A Dangerous Legal Precedent?

The DeFi Education Fund argues that the Justice Department’s case represents an alarming overreach that threatens to criminalize software developers based solely on how others choose to use their code.

In their view, holding developers liable for creating non-custodial, open-source software sets a dangerous precedent that could cripple innovation not only within crypto but across the entire tech sector.

“This kind of legal environment does not just chill innovation — it freezes it,” the group warned.

“It empowers politically motivated enforcement actions and puts every open-source developer at risk, regardless of their industry.”

The letter also highlighted that the prosecution appears to contradict existing regulatory guidance. During Trump’s first term, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) clarified that developers building peer-to-peer, self-custodial protocols are not considered money transmitters under U.S. law.

The group further pointed to a January 2025 ruling by a federal court in Texas, which found that the Treasury Department had overstepped its authority when it previously sanctioned Tornado Cash.

High Stakes for Crypto Innovation

The DeFi Education Fund’s petition also expressed gratitude toward Trump for his past expressions of support for the crypto industry and his stated ambition to turn the United States into the “crypto capital of the planet.”

However, they stressed that this goal would be impossible to achieve if American developers faced criminal charges for building foundational tools for the ecosystem.

“We ask President Trump to protect American software developers, restore legal clarity, and end this unlawful DOJ overreach.

The job’s not finished, and the stakes could not be higher,” the letter concluded.

Industry Leaders Rally Behind the Petition

The call to action has rapidly gained support among high-profile figures within the crypto community.

As of this writing, the petition has amassed 232 signatures from prominent developers and industry executives, including:

Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase

Matt Huang, co-founder of Paradigm

Tim Beiko, a core developer of Ethereum

Jake Chervinsky, Chief Legal Officer at Variant Fund, also criticized the ongoing case against Storm, calling it “an outdated remnant of the Biden administration’s war on crypto.”

“There is no justification in law or policy for prosecuting software developers for launching non-custodial smart contract protocols,” Chervinsky added.