The main developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency project will remain behind bars until the end of the year

According to the information provided by Ksenia Malik, the wife of Alexei Pertsev, the developer of the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash, the court rejected the appeal and ordered Pertsev to remain behind bars at least until the end of November. It is unknown whether the developer will be released after that.

According to Ksenia Malyk, the court refused to take into account any arguments of the defense and unlawfully dismissed the appeal. In addition, the Dutch prosecutor’s office will seize Pertsev’s property and sell it at auction. The developer’s car, which was confiscated on the day of the arrest, will also be sold.

It is worth noting that the arrest of Alexei Pertsev caused a strong resonance in the cryptocurrency community. Users, human rights activists, and well-known developers all disagree with the court’s decision and demand the immediate release of Alexei Pertsev. There is an opinion that the developer has become a victim of US political repression. «This is like saying that the inventor of the knife is guilty of murder. It’s absurd,» said one of the participants of a rally in support of Pertsev in August.

Earlier, Pertsev’s wife had already spoken to journalists about her husband’s arrest. At the end of August, Ksenia Malik denied the statements made in the Kharon financial crime analysts' blog that Pertsev allegedly worked for a company that the US government linked to the Russian FSB. «Alexey has never been associated with the Russian FSB or similar organizations. We moved to the Netherlands in the hope of a calm, stable and free life, which is impossible to imagine in military Russia,» Malik explained.

It should be noted that Tornado Cash (unlike the Blender mixer) is open source and decentralized, so the mixer is not owned by a specific person or organization. That is why the project developer cannot be held liable for the illegal activities of cryptocurrency criminals.