Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, September 30th, and today we have an update in the

Tornado Cash case. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please

go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the

conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go

to bit.ly.slashblogel Pod. T. Tornado cash founder Roman Storm will stand trial after a federal judge denied his motion to dismiss.

Storm is facing three criminal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to

commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting

business. The case is being held by Catherine Polkfalia,

the same judge that is overseeing the Coinbase lawsuit, and has demonstrated an impressive

ability to grasp the legal issues surrounding digital assets in Defi. During a hearing on

Thursday, the judge found the government's allegations to be plausible enough to warrant a trial.

She said, at this stage in the case, the court cannot simply accept Mr. Storm's narrative that he is being prosecuted merely for writing code.

If the jury ultimately accepts this narrative, then it will acquit.

But there's no basis for me to decide that as a matter of law.

Instead, she was convinced that tornado cash was indistinguishable from other financial services and money transmitters.

The tornado cash case has been billed as the big

code is speech lawsuit for this generation, but the judge just wasn't buying it. Again, she said,

the functional capability of code is not speech within the meaning of the First Amendment. The court

finds that the government has a substantial interest in promoting a secure financial system,

by combating money laundering, by combating the operation of unregistered money-transmitting services, and by combating the evasion of sanctions.

...