Prosecution's case imploding in @rstormsf's Tornado Cash trial. His lawyer called for a mistrial after crypto forensics experts exposed "bumbling" efforts to trace funds. MetaMask's @tayvano_ analyzed the evidence & found flaws in the government's case, @zachxbt agrees... 🧵

Prosecution claimed to trace victim funds to Tornado Cash, but Monahan discovered they traced to an "instaswapper" service, then falsely claimed to continue tracing transactions that were "unknown inputs from another chain." She called potential testimony "explicit perjury"

Plot twist. The victim hired Payback LTD to trace her stolen funds. That company was later shut down by the FBI for "further defrauding cryptocurrency scam victims" by charging upfront fees with no track record of recovery.

The prosecution is accused of fighting dirty. Trying to remove defense experts for "wasting time," weaponizing Telegram messages from a @CoinDesk group chat, and planning to introduce banned KYC testimony. An FBI agent even dismissed VPN use as suspicious behavior.

Even the prosecution's own blockchain expert couldn't directly connect the victim's transactions to Tornado Cash. Coinbase's @jconorgrogan suspects investigators confused decentralized exchange swaps as transfers between individuals ⤵️