Alexei Burtsev, developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing protocol, was convicted of laundering

Alexei Burtsev, developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing protocol, has been found guilty of money laundering, raising potentially serious consequences for open source code developers.

Bertsev was found guilty of money laundering by Dutch judges in the s-Hertogenbosch court on May 14. The developer was sentenced to five years and four months in prison, on charges of laundering illicit assets worth $1.2 billion on the platform.

The ruling came despite Tornado Cash being a non-custodial cryptocurrency mixing protocol – meaning funds that pass through the protocol are never held or controlled.

Despite having no control over the funds, the developer was convicted after being first jailed in the Netherlands in August 2022, shortly after the US government blacklisted Tornado Cash.

Burtsev’s legal representatives will have 14 days to appeal the court ruling.

Related: CryptoQuant CEO Says Mixing Cryptocurrencies “Not a Crime.”

This is a developing story, and more information will be added as it becomes available.