Bitcoin Forum

Apr. 24: Samourai Wallet Founders Arrested and Charged With Money Laundering (https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/04/24/samourai-wallet-founders-arrested-and-charged-with-money-laundering/)
Privacy wallet devs arrested for... Developing a privacy wallet. One was unfortunate enough to be arrested in the U.S. and the other will be facing an extradition battle.

Apr. 30: Binance founder Changpeng Zhao sentenced to 4 months in prison after plea deal (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/30/binance-founder-changpeng-zhao-cz-sentenced-to-four-months-in-prison-.html)
CZ Got sentenced to a jail sentence in spite of him having made a very extensive plea deal with the feds only to avoid jail. He had even given up his role as CEO. CZ had willingly come to the U.S. to stand trial and he still didn't manage to avoid a sentence even though he fully cooperated. Albeit a small sentence it goes to show how ferocious feds can be.

May 1: DOJ charges ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ with $48 million tax fraud, seeks extradition (https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/01/doj-charges-bitcoin-jesus-with-48-million-in-tax-fraud-seeks-extradition-.html)
Early bitcoin supporter and investor Roger Ver, who had rescinded his U.S. citizenship and was traveling on a Saint Kitts passport he had bought, was recently arrested abroad. Now the feds are seeking his extradition.  

May 2: Wasabi Bitcoin privacy mixing service to shut down starting June 1, zkSNACKs cites legal certainty concerns (https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/wasabi-bitcoin-privacy-mixing-service-to-shut-down-starting-june-1-zksnacks-cites-legal-certainty-concerns-202405022359)
Another prominent privacy wallet shut down its privacy component proactively in light of developments from the U.S. pursuing action against privacy wallet developers.

FED, DOJ, SEC can do anti-Bitcoin, anti-cryptocurrency actions and can do some regulations to serve their fights against this market but they must now, by doing such fights, they are fighting against their citizens.

I believe there is no absolute freedom for citizens or absolute power from the governments to do every regulatory actions they want. Because in Western and developed countries, citizens, the people can use their voice and votes to fight for their freedom and rights.

Even in the US. Congress, not all politicians are against Bitcoin and cryptocurrency and they will fight for this market and for their political future too.

Sec in various countries need to do more in terms of regulations if their ever want to create an enabling and secured cryptocurrency environment that allow wide spread adoption of this 21st century technology, because by doing that, it will reduce the chances of individual firm CEOs from committing all manar of criminal acts such as money laundering which is prominent within the cryptocurrency space today most especially centralized firms.

Currently the government in my view is taking a wrong approach at least in the case of my country sec vs cryptocurrency regulations, government need to be pro active because that is the only way they can stop those crimes before their happen in the cryptocurrency Industry,  and with good regulatory the government will draft a formidable framework that allow free flow of taxation from. Cryptocurrency ventures like exchange and other services within the cryptocurrency space.

If you look deeper into this whole action of the authorities, one thing is common which is the fight against privacy. The authorities are desperately doing their best to eliminate anything privacy as it has to do with finance because the moment they lose control of finance, their powers might seem diminished.

A part of me have the feeling that most of the allegations against mixers might be fabricated because there was little evidence to support the fact that mixers were used to launder illegal funds. Even if they were, from time immemorial, conventional payment systems have been used for money laundering, terrorism financing, human trafficking, drugs and others but we have not heard of any of the channels being shutdown for the same purpose. Why then are privacy related system being targeted?

In many countries, Bitcoin and exchanges are being blamed for the devaluation of their currency and collapse of their economy, a baseless statement from government that have either lost touch of reality or are obviously trying to kill Bitcoin as they see same as a treat. I do not really know what the future look like for Bitcoin as it has to do with privacy. By the way, Theymos was right in his decision to ban mixers here, he saved this forum from the authorities even though many people will think otherwise.

The case with binance and cz does not have anything to do with BTC, cz was guilty of money laundering and the other offences he was charged with, he paid fines of a large amount and is going to stay in prison for four months, so that is that. I have always said that centralized exchanges and custodial services are into a lot of shady things, and prosecuting them can serve as a deterrent to others.

However, there is an obvious attack against BTC, through privacy options that service bitcoiners and also anything that enhances privacy. The government isn't even going to stop here, many countries want to launch their cbdc's, so what better way than to attack BTC's fungibility and in turn promote their own digital currencies.

Seems like crackdown on wallet with in built privacy tools is already end because Mercury wallet stopped their operation since the last year and Sparrow Wallet had stopped the CoinJoin feature around 2 weeks ago.

Sure they're not against Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, as we can see many Bitcoin naysayers now invest in Bitcoin, but... they won't support privacy rights.

Government: Trust me bro.

Because in conventional payment systems, the government can get a share from the money laundering, terrorism, human traffic, drug etc. They won't shutdown their service since it would affect their earnings and people's trust, instead they will say it's "human error" if they missed to frozen criminals' funds.

These two FED actions aren't against Bitcoin and crypto, they are against Fraudsters. Changpeng Zhao and Roger Ver are very shady people. Changpeng Zhao has been letting people launder money on his Binance, he also has been helping Chinese users to bypass KYC restrictions, in overall, a very shady business practice.
The majority of this forum members also know who Roger Ver is. He is a guy that for some reason which I don't know, owns Bitcoin.com domain and uses this privilege to lie to people, promotes Bitcoin Cash over the original Bitcoin and does many shady things. It's good that these two people got in trouble but it drives me crazy how CZ only got to spend 4 months in prison.

Actions against Samouri Wallet Founders and Wasabi privacy mixing service are definitely an action against Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and our privacy.

Somehow, the crypto ecosystem needs some form of regulation to some extent so people that comes into the system don't use it decentralized nature as an excuse for abusing it and using it to carry out evil agenda.

What the FED are doing is a two sided narrative, on the one hand, they are trying to paint a picture that the crypto ecosystem can't be totally void of there regulation and by so doing they tend to infringe on the privacy of her users and deny them of some key fundamental rights they have to carry out there financial transactions the way they want to. On the order hand, which to some extent isn't bad is that  they might want to fetch out the bad eggs from the system so as to discourage whoever might have any intention of using crypto in a way that will be dangerous to the society.

But this is just too much for most persons that are just joining th system not long ago. In my region, we've been denied access to the use of binance, a major threat has been issued out to delist our currency from major exchanges and while thier hasn't been an outright ban on crypto in general, the laws and regulations that's now affecting all crypto users generally sena to become a major source of discouragement for all crypto enthusiast.

I actually thought the SEC was trying to bring down Binance in the first place, but I literally didn't believe the money laundering charges. I think centralized exchanges place themselves in such positions where things can go against them at any point in time. Lately, I have learned that these agencies are literally after everything related to crypto, whether centralized or decentralized. Which means they also disturb exchanges(centralize) that are under their(SEC's) supervision.


I think the government has realized that cryptocurrency will succeed no matter how tough they act on it. However, they are still very interested in their no privacy policy, which would surely give them information on everyone using Bitcoin and others. Privacy is surely the right of everyone and it's not negotiable.

Another piece of news that was glanced over by most is that the DTCC will not be considering BTC and any crypto ETFs as collateral, in their own words giving those assets a 100% haircut for collateral purposes:
https://www.dtcc.com/-/media/Files/pdf/2024/4/26/B20002-24.pdf
This news came on April 26 and started to apply from April 30. This means that any holder of crypto ETFs can no longer use them as a margin hedge. Obviously it's bad news for institutional investors. The DTCC might not be a federal agency but it's the closest thing there can be to a state organization as the U.S. is one of the few countries where central clearing houses are private and aren't associated with the government and the state. So it's a very authoritative decision by the main organization affecting such transactions in traditional financial markets. There was no explanation as to why this happened but it's not too unlikely that there was some behind the scenes FED involvement to make this happen after crypto ETFs stared getting official approval.

It's weird that FUD spreaders aren't celebrating with all these negative news, I guess there's not a lot of people out there that's taking them seriously nowadays that it's not worth their time to be a hater of bitcoin anymore. It's such a surprising thing too that they're actively moving against crypto again, really crazy that they're suddenly hostile with bitcoin and crypto again, I do hope though that this will only strengthen the community though. The arrest of Roger Ver is one of the biggest one in my opinion, $48m alleged fraud? Wow! Suddenly they're doing all of this now? They really must need Ver's wealth.

They have scrutinized exchanges and companies that have been all-out for crypto. It's for sure that they're seeing where this is heading and that's to greater success of Bitcoin.

And it's not just about the possible success of Bitcoin but also it includes our privacy. They're violating our rights to privacy but even with that, they're telling who's the boss.

"They" have always been against Bitcoin, or more precisely against the idea that BTC basically represents - which is a decentralized cryptocurrency, and when you mention those words (decentralized cryptocurrency) to any of the politicians/bankers, their pressure immediately rises and they start behaving strangely.

What is happening right now is obviously a coordinated action towards all tools that have the possibility of mixing BTC, although this happened before to a somewhat lesser extent. I don't see anything strange in that, it is more than logical behavior of people who are obsessed with controlling everything and everyone.

Also, in the last few days, two well-known mixers have "disappeared", apparently in an attempt not to become a target. Obviously, a very clear message is being sent - "we will kill your privacy sooner or later".

The US has many other trust companies registered with the U.S. Federal Reserve System. The country also has five other registered clearing agencies besides the Depository Trust Company (DTC). If they decide not to accept BTC and other cryptocurrencies as collateral, others will take it. When an organisation has an anti-Bitcoin Board of Directors, it will do everything to give the sector a bad reputation.


I am not a fan of centralised platforms but it is worth noting that the government is also attacking them directly or indirectly. The government keep making new laws to make their operation difficult. The scope of what is money laundering keeps expanding every day. These new regulations are strategies to push these crypto service providers out of business. An example is the closing of many Bitcoin ATMs in the UK because of regulatory infringements. The Bitcoin ATM operators could not renew their licences because the process has become rigorous.     

As cryptocurrency is growing we can’t expect for the government to turn a blind eye into everything they see. That’s why we are seeing a spike of cases wherein any crypto-related personas are being sued and arrested left and right. However even though some of these cases just like with cz’s who has nothing to do with bitcoin ir crypto itself, we can not deny that the government might be taking this as a win against crypto.

The government obviously goes against bitcoin and giving up control and privacy to us citizens so I am sure that they are alarmed and trying to learn about crypto as much and as quick as possible.

They will do anything so that the ball is still in their court. We shall see how it all plays out.

These actions are not against "bitcoin and crypto", they are clearly against mixers, which they are clearly coming after.

And their concern is money laundering and tax evasion, not people holding and trading crypto, which millions do every day and are under no risk of prosecution.

This is not, repeat not a crackdown on cryptocurrencies.

You can debate whether the government should be cracking down on anonymized services that allow transactions that are impossible to be tracked by a government with a valid subpoena, but that is all they are targeting here.

US and it's enforcement authorities are furious as they have realised that they cannot control crypto at all. So they are targetting businesses like Binance. Mixers are different story. But I was surprised to see CZ getting 4 months of imprisonment.

It's high time that crypto businesses move out of US completely stop rendering services to the US customers. They will eventually Target all businesses built around crypto.

They may be anti-privacy but they may want Bitcoin.
In some wallets that make the decision to stop Coinjoin services do not want to get unwanted things like Wasabi.
I think certain parties want to control Bitcoin in such a way that they continue to look for loopholes as they have and are doing.
Initially on the mixer and on the services related to it.
Another possibility in my opinion, they would stop everything they are doing if they could control Bitcoin like they control the fiat financial system.

It's government against Bitcoin users's privacy, against Bitcoin's through nature of decentralization, and against platforms that promote and support privacy. The government loves transparency, and since they can't get a hold of everything they want to know, plus the fact that money laundering cases are now becoming popular with cryptocurrency,. 

It's nothing new that the government hates a system that is not transparent; they always want to oversee everything, and this is going to continue as they will not also rest. I also saw a post stating that two mixers were recently suspended too. I don't know how true that is, but it could be true because of the other mixers that have been banned in the past. 

And as for me I leverage this type of news. Because FUD news, charges from known Exchanges, New Government policies, for me it only creates price manipulation. It manipulates participants of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency by putting in negative stance in the market. Those news creates fear that would push emotions of many investors or hodler. They may get convinced to sell their position. And it's nothing new, Crypto space has been in many negative issues before but still BTC is in a very bullish market sentiment especially after adapting to changes in the halving season.

Here's some more news:

May 3: BTC-e Operator Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering Conspiracy (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/btc-e-operator-pleads-guilty-money-laundering-conspiracy)

This has been a long time coming with the U.S. openly colluding with national justice systems in Europe. Instead of going through the country's court systems, the U.S. urged a direct extradition order from a ministerial office in Greece. Ever his arrest, for operating an unlicensed exchange BTC-e which was one of the biggest at the time, the U.S. FEDs are surely trying to make an example of Alexander Vinnik.

May 4: Former Cred Executives Indicted on Wire Fraud, Other Charges (https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/05/03/former-cred-executives-indicted-on-wire-fraud-other-charges/)
I'd argue that this is a good development as case law against "crypto lender" ponzi schemes can only be a good thing given how much money has been stolen through them.

CZ sentence and Bitcoin Jesus arrest doesn't seem to me like an attack on Bitcoin or crypto, they both got what they deserved. Despite CZ's cooperation with the authorities, I think he's very lucky because he won't get such sentence in other part of the world. BJ on the other hand found himself at the wrong side of the law for tax evasion.

Since this topic is about feds crackdown on crypto, you might want to add LocalMonero/AgoraDesk¹ to your list. It has just announced that it's winding down it's operation and I don't think the timing is a coincident.

1. https://agoradesk.com/blog/announcements/winding-down

There are many communities that are hostile to Bitcoin and crypto, so the FED is providing a lot of benefits. A higher level for the FED to be set by the Federal Reserve can have various effects on the Bitcoin environment. Cryptocurrencies, with their inherent volatility and lack of established financial history, are especially sensitive to changes in the interest rate environment, which will help the FED address all of their issues. This is evidenced by the historical price action within the cryptocurrency market

They have always been against it  because they consider it as a threat to the present financial systems of the countries.While developers are increasing the bitcoin Software network,bitcoin is controlled by us all,and it'll take a very long time and efforts to transform whatever it is that bitcoin delivers to us.

This whole actions determines that bitcoin is a decentralized and the expected attempt to change or terminate it wouldn't be available or coming easily.

I think this should have been Happening, this AG at the DOJ right now doing all of this will be Remembered for Starting this, for being the Pioneer in Arresting Cryptocurrency Criminals. This is Reports. It is Done.

Aside from being a financial threat they don't really like the idea of being anonymous and those officials doesn't want people to have that option since its hard for them to track certain activities happening in online space and they don't want that money laundering will be rampant by the help of those platforms or coins that help some transaction not to be track by feds. That's why they do this massive campaign which is to eliminate those platforms and they are successful to drop down each of those famous mixers and other platform which running into same like model. Government make it look like decentralized since they find ways to control it and they use their power to make those things happen.

Of course not everybody agrees with these crazy policies: those are the only ones who understand that the USA could lose a huge future market. Look at what China did with the bitcoin mining bans, they just hurt themselves. I understand that the USA are worried about the dollar but I don't think many American politicians are looking for the future, they are just worried about what is going on right now.

Yes. You are right in looking at this, especially if you live in a country where the per capita income level is weak and economically problematic. Well, for the short answer they will not let BTC rise too high and exceed their expectations because it has power in terms of regulation with the basic mindset the Government should never lose in anything and let's look at other causes of the recent decline in BTC prices resulting in a correction of up to $60,800.

And you are blaming the fact that bitcoin cannot increase in price, it is correcting to the $60k area and the government is the cause? Are you serious? So can you explain to me what bitcoin going from $15k to $73k has to do with the government? Or is the dumping of bitcoin from $69k to $15k by 2022 also caused by the government? Is Bitcoin's volatility due to government manipulation?  LOL.

The funny thing is when the price of bitcoin goes up, you scream that bitcoin is the future, the revolution of the world, but when the price of bitcoin goes down and adjusts a bit, you blame the government, institutions, etc.
Don't invest in bitcoin with a hostile mindset and like to blame others every time the market doesn't perform as you expected. As a financial market, if there is an increase, there will be a decrease and that is normal, only scam projects will increase vertically without adjustment.

May 7: Nigeria to Ban Person-to-Person Crypto Trade in Dented Naira (http://=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-07/nigeria-to-ban-person-to-person-crypto-trade-in-battered-naira)
Here we go again. Nigeria had become one of the major hubs for crypto and with good reason. People earn very little for a living but even that amount of money gets lost if they keep it in the local currency, Naira.

Inflation has been eating people's savings actively with the NGN losing around 88% of its value against the Euro in the last 20 years... Imagine holding a child's savings account for that long and he has lost nearly all of his purchasing power when he's able to open the account to get the money. It's crazy. The politicians think that by banning p2p trades they'll be able to avoid the Naira losing value? How about investing in their own country's production instead of allowing foreign corporations plunder the national wealth? Maybe that would help with inflation instead of being draconian against people... I don't know how Nigerians will react to this but I hope a crypto grey market arises out of it in defiance.

The FED will always be a Bitcoin enemy, luckily, it is very difficult to stop Bitcoin  :P

I know, it is a complex process of market dynamics. But can you explain to me also a little bit how they play a role in price fluctuations and their impact on the market???


Yes, and that's just a small part of it. Naturally, if someone wants to pretend to swim in this large pool.

It's just sad that these regulators or governments are into these projects that really have nothing to do with them, it's pure decentralized and helping the cryptocurrency market.
For me, these kinds of projects is really to prone to this because these things are they can only attack, they can't attack directly on Bitcoin.

They? Do you mean the government?

Price fluctuations are just reflections of how people think of a specific coin. If they think it is valuable then they will hold thus making other people think that it is indeed valuable because the supply is decreasing and will hike up demand.

Now if the government were to crack down on that and make people feel hesitant and suspicious about the project then they will no longer hold it anymore having some conflicting feelings about it.

I think there is nothing to explain to you, and as I said, in the cryptocurrency market, volatility is normal and obvious, it is even a specialty of the market. Don't try to blame others when the market doesn't move as you expected.

Agreed that bitcoin is facing a lot of challenges caused by the government, but that does not mean that the movement of bitcoin in the market is being manipulated by the government. Also, don't forget that bitcoin is a new, decentralized asset, and it's normal for government agencies or authorities to be unfriendly towards it. You just need to simply think that these are just challenges that bitcoin needs to overcome if it wants to be popular and recognized. Just like to be successful, we have to face and overcome thousands of challenges and risks, no success comes easy.

They still have a chance to own Bitcoin, but they need to use Dollar to buy Bitcoin. So they need to convert Naira to Dollar to Bitcoin, although we know there's no point for doing that, just add unnecessary steps.

They stated that they ban it because if people trade Bitcoin and Naira, it would affect Naira price. I don't think it's different if they convert Naira to Dollar, it will affect Naira too. What I think is Nigerian SEC want to make money from exchanging Naira to Dollar.

But, are they celebrating publicly even before? I didn't feel that. Maybe they are not only showing it publicly but deep inside them, they are very happy when their plans of destroying Bitcoin are happening successfully. As they say, 'once a hater will always be a hater' so they will remain as is, even if people won't take them seriously anymore and in fact their force will get stronger this time.

The reason on why they are active again is because we are in the bull run and this makes people go crazy towards it. I don't think they will act nicely without a return but you already said the reason for their appearance here. They need more money as much we can.

Ver's money is a big reward. the guy is not liked by many of us but he still is part of the community. hope he can survive this.

if crypto wins, FED will be dissolved. no more printing. surely they don't want that but they can get around to all these if they can get rid of privacy features. we understood this already as their government even put a bounty on who can crack XMR. they are yet not done. each government may actually be in the process of cracking down p2p. there is already a plan for it. those not in crypto will not be part of this battle.

So obviously, the binance removing NAIRA in their platform did not work so now they're trying to launch a mass ban on p2p lol what's next? because this one will not work as well. From what I heard from a local, the previous admin also blamed another platform for their falling currency 🥱

I guess they selected crypto as the scapegoat because of the stigma around it esp with all the crackdowns happening... I sure hope most locals don't buy this bs.

You're absolutely correct, infact I'm amazed with your responses it shows we think alike here.

From the origin anything that has to do without the government controls seems to be an attack on them. They get nervous, feeling like the world is now on there shoulders. How can a set of people want to own a life that they can not create? There are almost in charge of everything except the breath we take in yet they do not want to let go of bitcoin in particular as it has been a big record that it's decentralised nature is the highest of all time.

Now what ever that will make bitcoin decentralised nature more better is been attacked and destroyed. But one thing is certain, they can not destroy bitcoin whether they like it or not.

https://www.axios.com/2024/05/14/tornado-cash-alexey-pertsev-crypto

Tornado Cash developer was convicted in the Netherlands and sentenced to 64 months in Prison, after a lengthy process.

I saw on twitter today that the intense prosecution of Tornado Cash developers and pressure to convict them by the US is reasonable given that a major user of the service had become North Korea. Well aside of the fact that developers can't control who uses a decentralized and distributed service, the irony is lost in the fact that the US has historically been a much more aggressive state for other countries. North Korea hasn't toppled any foreign government. The US has done it hundreds if not thousands of times.

But for the United States to maintain its status as a global leader, people have to suffer. Anyone who defies that, even just developers who write code for other people to use, will get complementary punishments. As if prosecutors don't have more serious matters to dedicate their time on than protecting US oligarch global insterests...

Remember one thin. Governmental activities are not against Bitcoin and crypto. They are against the people who use these coins. A bitcoin doesn't care if somebody beats it with a hammer.

8)

Those pursued are not others, of course, their own citizens. I think this is a form of defense born from the government because it has seen a level of tendency for users, especially citizens who own a lot of BTC assets and this will be considered to weaken the government's authority over capital controls that have been regulated by the government.

I don't know when this will end because until now they seem to be pictured not directly opposed but always seem to look with distrust towards BTC who knows what they really think????

There is a most common counter argument that nobody will sentence a producer of knife, gun in prison if someone else bought a knife, a gun and use it to kill somebody. This makes sense and logic but governments with their power in hands, don't want to interpret things and procedures like this. If they don't like a kind of service, like mixers, they will arrest the service providers and sentence them in prison for years.

It starts to become geopolitical issue, no longer about legality of a service, product like mixer. If a mixer is used by anyone, any entity but criminals from North Korea like Lazarus group don't use it, governments will not cooperate at global scale to seize a platform and will not sentence the owner, operate in prison.

it is not fair and does not make any sense at all but again they are governments.

Things start to become worse, with less space for privacy while privacy matters for all of us.

There is definitely a trend line here & Biden's administration is obviously not loving crypto at the moment. They want to shut it down, lock it out, stop it any way that they can. But to someone's point this will just push the bad guys in another direction that doesn't put them at risk when they pull an atomic swap on the funds from BTC to XME or others & honestly because of this it may be even more hard for authorities to track these guys if they stay on the route that they are on here, I'll post the tread link here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5495931.0

When someone is charged with a crime, it's important to determine whether it's an unjustified charge that is actually for something a person says/does/represents or a justified charge. Then, if it's the latter, a person has the right to fair trial. In case of Samourai wallet, the founders are accused that their tool "facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering transactions from illegal dark web markets". The charge itself seems fair, and the US has fairly strong democratic institutions, so there's a good chance of fair trial.
CZ pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering, and 4 months of prison aren't a big term, IMO. Roger Ver is charged with $48 million tax fraud, which is also a serious crime.
I agree it's a long of cases with very recent updates, but that might be an attempt to impose strict regulations rather than to go against Bitcoin. Also, note that the charges are against representatives of centralized platforms and only in one case against an individual who didn't pay taxes. Overall, that seems fair to me.

Things like this have a bad side and a good side. I get that the government are using all there power to fight bitcoin and crypto in it's own way, but looking from a different perspective, there doing their jobs.
If there are no regulations and the regulatory bodies don't do their jobs people will commit so many crimes and break so many laws with their platforms. If prominent people are allowed to do whatever they want they will get away with a lot, despite all the regulations, they get away with a lot talk more of little to no regulation.

The downside is that the feds just want to scapegoat whoever they catch at this point. Cz was a clear case of scapegoating for me, even though he was guilty. I feel it's either the crime was worse than reported or the feds wanted to make a statement with CZ.