Tornado Cash dev supporters reject AG Blanche's hollow ‘code is not crime' pledge

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche’s statement at Bitcoin 2026 that coders won’t be prosecuted for merely writing code failed to reassure Tornado Cash supporters and broader crypto markets. Legal experts and developers called the “helping and knowing” caveat vague, and the DOJ’s move to seek a retrial in Roman Storm’s case keeps a legal overhang on non‑custodial protocol developers. The persistent prosecution risk sustains regulatory uncertainty that could dampen developer activity and investor appetite for privacy-focused and smart‑contract projects built on Ethereum, creating a negative sentiment catalyst for ETH‑linked assets despite the administration’s crypto‑positive rhetoric.