Dragonfly invested into PepperSec, Inc., the developers of Tornado Cash, in August of 2020. We made this investment because we believe in the importance of open-source privacy-preserving technology. Prior to our investment, we obtained an outside legal opinion that confirmed that Tornado Cash as built complied with the law, under the guidance given by FinCEN in 2019. The government has now stated in open court that they are contemplating charges against Dragonfly for having invested into the Tornado Cash team in 2020. On counsel’s advice, we have refrained from public comment. But we can no longer remain silent. We believe deeply in Americans’ right to privacy, and the lack of it remains one of crypto’s largest unsolved problems. We therefore stand by our investment. We did not operate or exercise any control over Tornado Cash, we had no contact with any malicious users, we always encouraged our portfolio companies to follow the law, and we maintain that Tornado Cash itself has a lawful right to exist—a view reinforced by Van Loon v. Department of the Treasury and OFAC’s subsequent rescission of sanctions. Charging a venture firm for a portfolio company’s alleged misconduct would be unprecedented, especially under these circumstances. In 2023 we received a DOJ subpoena and have fully cooperated with the government’s investigation of Tornado Cash, confident that we have always complied with the law. The DOJ has made clear that we are not ourselves a target of their investigation. As with every investment, we provided PepperSec the same advice and support we offer all portfolio companies. We believe the government’s statement in court today was primarily to undermine a defense of Tornado Cash—to make it more difficult for the defense to call Tom to testify on the stand. After all of this time—years later—bringing charges against Dragonfly would be outrageous, contrary to the facts and the law, and would induce a chilling effect onto all investment into crypto and privacy-preserving technologies in America. We don’t believe the DOJ would actually bring such absurd and groundless charges. But if they do, we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.

This is good. Meeting users where they are is key. Most important things for Zcash IMO (in order of most to least): 1. (Private) Getting more ZEC shielded. This is probably a matter of more hardware wallet support, and better wallet UX (zashi and this). 2. (Unstoppable) Plugging into liquidity across crypto. Already making headway here, but bridges to as many chains as possible so that no single entity can stop it is key, and people can easily access it from wherever they are already a user. 3. (Money) Getting people to use and spend it so that it can create a window into the real world. Also if it could stop dumping relative to the rest of the market that would probably help people actually want to hold it. Value does matter, it's supposed to be money/an asset overall. Tachyon and Crosslink are cool, but if we can't get people to use this what's the point. I think those 3 features would drive adoption. I think Zcash is at a critical moment in its life.