Convicted Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has a powerful ally coming to his aid.

On Wednesday, the Ethereum Foundation said it is donating $1.25 million to Pertsev's legal defense. Last year, Pertsev was sentenced to 64 months in prison by a Dutch court for facilitating the laundering of $1.2 billion in crypto through the Tornado Cash mixer.

This comes just a day after the foundation promoted its executive director, Aya Miyaguchi, to president.  

"Privacy is normal, and writing code is not a crime," the Ethereum Foundation said in its post to X announcing the donation. The post was framed as a response to Paradigm Matt Huang announcing in January his firm was donating $1.25 million to Tornado co-founder Roman Storm's legal defense.

Earlier this month, Pertsev said he would be released from pretrial detention and would be working on his appeal. The Dutch court suspended his pretrial detention under the condition he submit to electronic monitoring.

Storm is currently launching his own legal defense in the United States. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, along with several other crypto community members, have urged U.S. President Donald Trump to clear Storm’s charges following his executive order pardoning Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht.