CZ pardoned...Tornado Cash developers, next?

[Abiky]

US President Donald Trump has been pardoning prominent figures in the crypto industry, ever since he took office again in Jan 2025. First it was Ross Ulbricht, and now CZ. Apparently SBF is seeking a pardon, but the odds are slim due to his ties to the Democratic Party in the past.

What's next? Trump might pardon developers involved in the Tornado Cash project, opening the path towards "free speech" in the privacy crypto industry within the US. I mean, if the President is serious about crypto, he should also pardon the Tornado Cash developers. He might pardon Samourai wallets' founders, too.

Do you think this will happen? If not, why?

Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Hispo]

There is a relatively small possibility Trump will end up giving pardons to those developers of Tornado cash, though the chances are not so big, in my opinion.
Trump knows he won't have another term to govern the country and he is already an elder, so he has little to lose politically, but he still needs to keep some political capital intact in order for him to name a political successor for the Republican party and that successor to have good chances of winning elections in the future.

As it stands today, the public is still pretty much against money laundering and it is politically negative to pardon those who facilitate it.

Just my two satoshis, though. I could be completely wrong and people actually love to see people who fights for privacy to be allowed to continue to do their business in complete freedom, but I doubt it.

[Ivystar5]

I'm my opinion it's a slim chance but firsy what they stand for which is privacy the government stand against I'm not sure Trump would be willing to give a chance to anyone who would contribute to privacy since the FEDs are heavily against it,

The only thing I can think of giving them a short term to serve in other words reduce the service terms, but giving them the freedom as he probably has done for Ross is like 1/99 it's possible but not too much of a chance for success.

[JeromeTash]

What's next? Trump might pardon developers involved in the Tornado Cash project, opening the path towards "free speech" in the privacy crypto industry within the US. I mean, if the President is serious about crypto, he should also pardon the Tornado Cash developers. He might pardon Samourai wallets' founders, too.

He should have actually done this as soon as he hit office if he really meant to roll out that "free speech" crusade, but I guess when we critically look at his pardons. He is trying to do something that will be mutually beneficial to him in the long run. Maybe from a business perspective. He is a businessman, you know that 

Trump is pretty unpredictable at times, and it's hard to know what next for the Tornado Cash developers, so time will be our greatest judge.

[FinneysTrueVision]

The one thing that’s clear is that if you are being investigated or have been charged you can buy your way out. Everything that came after the Ross pardon, on his second day in office, has been financially beneficial to Trump.

Justin Sun invested $100 million in WLFI and another $10 million into the Trump memecoin. Coinbase donated to his campaign, sponsored his birthday military parade, and helped fund the ballroom they’re tearing down part of the White House for. Other companies made similar “investments”, i.e., bribes. Binance promotes the USD1 stablecoin and made a $2 billion deal in USD1. This allows Trump to collect millions in treasury yield per year.

Tornado Cash and Samourai are not a priority because there isn’t a lot of money you can squeeze out of their developers and there isn’t as much political gain as the Ross Ulbricht pardon. I would think that he would at least try to make it less obvious he is a greedy, corrupt person by pardoning some more regular people in between all the quid pro quo and MAGA loyalists, but it has not really been the case. It seems more likely at this point that Diddy and Ghislaine Maxwell receive pardons.

[nelson4lov]

Apparently, CZ only got pardoned because he's very famous and that Binance and their US entity (BINANCE US) can contribute to the US economy. Iirc, Binance itself was under close monitoring by the government after that $4B fine. In tournament cash defense, what they created actually goes against the government and I don't think any pardon made towards the dev will be allowed to stand by congress. Maybe if there was value from tornado cash that directly accrued to US government then their chances would've increased tremendously but it doesn't accrue value.

[Odusko]

When it comes to presidential pardoning, we can really predict how or who the president will pardoned or not, CZ case was totally different considering how Trump approach the whole pardoned thing, any ways he is out and the cryptocurrency Industry can have a new wave of hope of government friendly approach towards cryptocurrency, and if Trump really have cryptocurrency at the center of his administration, we can expect more unexpected pardoning that will pave the way for more privacy.

[passwordnow]

We will never know, and I think that it's all about the party's support and whoever these people have supported in the past. If Trump is wanting to do that, he should have done it already next to this but if so, this might take time and won't happen in the nearest future. So, playing with the political supports, I think that it will play that part for those who got jailed due to some good reasons like support of decentralized and privacy. But as for SBF, he's a criminal and has swindled people's money so, it's totally a different thing about his case.

[asriloni]

It's possible to happen. In fact, Alex Pertsev already released from the prison and seeking for appeal. It may be possible for him to get pardoned by Trump as long as he can cooperative with Trump's regime. that's the only point he must be done to let him free.

However, i won't be surprised if he may go back to the jail if he's not being cooperative.

[Taskford]

US President Donald Trump has been pardoning prominent figures in the crypto industry, ever since he took office again in Jan 2025. First it was Ross Ulbricht, and now CZ. Apparently SBF is seeking a pardon, but the odds are slim due to his ties to the Democratic Party in the past.

What's next? Trump might pardon developers involved in the Tornado Cash project, opening the path towards "free speech" in the privacy crypto industry within the US. I mean, if the President is serious about crypto, he should also pardon the Tornado Cash developers. He might pardon Samourai wallets' founders, too.

Do you think this will happen? If not, why?

Your input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

There's really a good chance that it might happen since as you can see in this article https://www.cointribune.com/en/crypto-the-american-justice-system-lifts-sanctions-against-tornado-cash/ they lift their sanction towards tornado cash devs which is good sign that there's another good news will came unto them.

So after those Ross and CZ pardon there's really good chance for Tornado Cash to receive a total pardon from Trump.

Also if that situation would gonna happen it will mark historic shift on how US government treat open source privacy tools. Let's see if we could see a nice update towards this case.

[TastyChillySauce00]

Apparently, CZ only got pardoned because he's very famous and that Binance and their US entity (BINANCE US) can contribute to the US economy. Iirc, Binance itself was under close monitoring by the government after that $4B fine. In tournament cash defense, what they created actually goes against the government and I don't think any pardon made towards the dev will be allowed to stand by congress. Maybe if there was value from tornado cash that directly accrued to US government then their chances would've increased tremendously but it doesn't accrue value.

Not to mention that tornado cash have really bad history of being misused by a really bad actor. I really doubt tornado cash developers gonna get pardoned.

CZ pardon sparked quite the controversy, tornado cash devs pardon will create an even bigger controversy, I'm sure of it.

[Abiky]

The one thing that’s clear is that if you are being investigated or have been charged you can buy your way out. Everything that came after the Ross pardon, on his second day in office, has been financially beneficial to Trump.

Justin Sun invested $100 million in WLFI and another $10 million into the Trump memecoin. Coinbase donated to his campaign, sponsored his birthday military parade, and helped fund the ballroom they’re tearing down part of the White House for. Other companies made similar “investments”, i.e., bribes. Binance promotes the USD1 stablecoin and made a $2 billion deal in USD1. This allows Trump to collect millions in treasury yield per year.

Tornado Cash and Samourai are not a priority because there isn’t a lot of money you can squeeze out of their developers and there isn’t as much political gain as the Ross Ulbricht pardon. I would think that he would at least try to make it less obvious he is a greedy, corrupt person by pardoning some more regular people in between all the quid pro quo and MAGA loyalists, but it has not really been the case. It seems more likely at this point that Diddy and Ghislaine Maxwell receive pardons.

Perhaps, you're right. It would be nothing more than a move from Trump to pardon those who're beneficial to his business ventures. I mean, the US President does have crypto in its portfolio. Mainly BTC and ETH. Tornado Cash is ETH-based, but since it's a privacy solution, it might not get the attention of the President.

Although, I seem to remember Trump used to be against the creation of a CBDC. No CBDC = privacy for Americans, right? Maybe Trump will change his mind about Tornado Cash and Samourai developers and issue them a pardon. Or maybe the Justice Department will drop all charges against them. Many things can happen during the remainder of Donald Trump's term as President. We'll see what happens in the long run.

[Ahli38]

Political trade-offs always occur during certain periods of government, where they are used to create favorable situations or even circumstances. And what Trump did to CZ is part of a beneficial political trade-off. So Trump might do the same with others in the future. And there's still a possibility that this will happen as long as it benefits to Trump or even for his country. I personally haven't seen any indication that Trump will make any moves to pardon others. But the possibility is always there.