Roman Storm, the co-founder of the crypto-mixing service Tornado Cash, will not face trial until April 26, 2027. Judge Katherine Polk Failla of the Southern District of New York signed the order on August 25, officially adjourning the proceedings. This significant delay was requested by Storm’s legal team rather than the prosecution, as the court continues to consider a pending motion for Storm’s acquittal.
The case centers on allegations that Storm and his colleagues operated a money-laundering business and violated U.S. sanctions by facilitating transactions for groups like North Korea’s Lazarus Group. By requesting the 2027 date, Storm’s defense gains additional time to navigate complex discovery and build a case around the argument that writing open-source code should not constitute a criminal act. The outcome of the pending motion for acquittal is the next major hurdle, as it could potentially dismiss some or all of the charges before a jury is ever seated.
This delay carries heavy weight for the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) industry and the privacy-tech community. The US government’s stance on Tornado Cash has become a litmus test for how code-based privacy tools are regulated under existing financial laws. If the court eventually rules that developers are liable for the illicit use of their permissionless protocols, it could set a chilling precedent for software engineers across the United States.
Investors and developers should watch for the court's decision on the motion for acquittal, which will likely arrive long before the 2027 trial date. This ruling will provide the first real indication of whether the Southern District of New York views the creation of privacy-preserving smart contracts as a protected activity or a punishable offense. For now, the extended timeline leaves a cloud of legal uncertainty over privacy-centric DeFi projects.