Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith entered a plea of not guilty Thursday afternoon in a Southern District of New York courthouse. Griffith is charged with conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Deed later on traveling to North korea (DRPK) in April 2022 to nourish a cryptocurrency conference.

If bedevilled, Griffth, who once called himself a "confusing technologist" whose aim was to "brand the Net a better and more interesting identify," could face up to 20 years in prison. He traveled up from Alabama to attend the arraignment and appeared equanimous throughout, answering with a house "Innocent" when Approximate Castel asked how he would plea.

According to the government's criminal complaint in United States of America v. Virgil Griffith, filed November. 21, 2022, the U.S. State Department denied Griffith permission to go to the DPRK to attend the conference considering of U.Due south. sanctions against Northward Korea. But Griffith traveled to the DPRK anyway, via China, and "provided the DPRK with valuable information on blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies, and participated in discussions regarding using cryptocurrency technologies to evade sanctions and wash money," charged the authorities.

During the arraignment in lower Manhattan, defence attorney Brian Klein asked if the government had interviewed other people who attended the Apr 2022 conference equally role of its discovery process, adding, "Nosotros think [testimony from] other attendees volition help exonerate our client."

Klein responded "No comment" when asked past Cointelegraph nigh the latest developments.

Griffith, a U.S. citizen living in Singapore, was arrested on Nov. 28 every bit he landed at Los Angeles Airport. The authorities's charges came "afterward the Trump assistants raised concerns over the summer about the national security threat cryptocurrencies pose because of their potential to be used to finance illicit activities," co-ordinate to the New York Times. The authorities'south complaint referenced another individual who helped Griffith to enter the DPRK and may confront charges also, but the authorities'south attorneys declined to comment further on that signal.

The crypto community is divided in its support of Griffith, Cointelegraph reported on Jan. ix after Griffith was indicted and released on bond — he remains gratuitous, though somewhat exiled to Alabama. "I don't think what Virgil did gave DRPK whatever kind of real assistance in doing anything bad. He *delivered a presentation based on publicly bachelor info about open-source software,*" declared Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin in early December.

Democratic people's republic of korea may exist in the early stages of building its ain cryptocurrency, in what appears to be an endeavor to evade U.S.-imposed sanctions, Cointelegraph reported in September 2022.  More recently, the Un warned that attention a Due north Korean cryptocurrency conference in February 2022 would most likely constitute a sanctions violation.

Judge Castel granted the government a continuance until March 17 to gather more discovery bear witness, the defense to review information technology and the parties to advise as to further motions.