Tornado Cash Co-Founder Claims Chainalysis Was Involved in Operating Tornado But Was Exempt, Questioning U.S. Government's Double Standard

BlockBeats News, August 27th — Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm questioned the U.S. government's handling of his case in a post, citing public court documents stating that blockchain analytics company Chainalysis operated the Tornado Cash Relayer in 2022 and earned fees from transactions routed through that Relayer. Storm stated that his lawyers had previously subpoenaed Chainalysis personnel to testify, but Chainalysis filed a motion to quash the subpoena, which was supported by the U.S. government. The court records also indicate that a Chainalysis witness plans to invoke the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to refuse to testify.

Storm raised questions based on this information, pointing out that Chainalysis, as a government partner in blockchain tracking, had actually operated the Tornado Cash infrastructure and received fees, while he himself faced ongoing criminal prosecution for his involvement in developing Tornado Cash. Storm also mentioned that the retrial of his case has been postponed by the court to April 26, 2027, and a judgment on his motion for acquittal is still pending.