Alexey Pertsev, the developer behind Tornado Cash, has been denied bail for the third time while his lawyers prepare to appeal his money laundering conviction. Pertsev was sentenced to five years and four months in prison for allegedly facilitating $1.2 billion in illicit transactions through the Tornado Cash platform. His defence team argues that Pertsev cannot be held liable for how third parties use the software, but the court has maintained that further security measures could have been implemented to prevent criminal abuse of the protocol. The crypto community, including organisations like JusticeDAO and prominent figures such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, have voiced strong opposition to the ruling, viewing it as a dangerous precedent for developers of open-source software​.