Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2022 over allegations it obscured funds stolen by North Korean state hackers. Pertsev was arrested days later, dealing a major blow to the embryonic crypto privacy sector.
The Dutch court particularly noted that the platform was designed for criminals, and that its developers should have done more to prevent bad actors from laundering money.
Bitcoin Magazine has quite a hyperbolic take on the result, implying that all financial privacy tools are criminalized
The legal team has 14 days to appeal the decision. His cofounder, Roman Storm, is also facing charges in the USA.