Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev to remain detained until April hearing

Alexey Pertsev, the developer behind the crypto mixer Tornado Cash, will remain detained until his next hearing scheduled for April 21, a Dutch court ruled.

In addition, a pre-trial review will take place on May 24, the court of East Brabant handling the case told The Block.

Authorities in the Netherlands first arrested Pertsev in August, days after U.S. authorities placed sanctions on Tornado Cash, a crypto mixing service that allows users to obscure the details of transactions. The U.S. Treasury accused Tornado Cash — which redistributes crypto from multiple users in a pool, making the flows more difficult to trace — of "laundering funds for malicious cyber actors."

The money flows allegedly “included funds stolen through hacks by a group believed to be associated with North Korea," the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service stated at the time of the arrest.

This is the third time that Pertsev’s appeal was rejected. Since August, he has remained detained for three months at a time. His last appeal was rejected in November.

Pertsev’s arrest sparked a broader debate about what it means for regulators to sanction software and spurred fears of unprecedented crypto enforcement.