- The US DoJ’s indictment of the BTC-focused founders of Samourai Wallet is met with mixed reactions.
- BTC’s recovery stalled after its development, reversing its initial gains.
samurai wallet, Bitcoin (BTC)– The company, which focuses on wallets and mixers, is the latest victim of the United States’ stepped-up crackdown on cryptocurrency mixers in an attempt to curb illicit finance through cryptocurrencies.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has charged Samourai Wallet mixer founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill with operating an unlicensed money transfer business and money laundering.
in press release A portion of the US DoJ statement dated April 24 is as follows:
“These charges arise from Defendants’ development, marketing, and operation of a cryptocurrency mixer that executed more than $2 billion in illicit transactions and facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering transactions on illicit dark web marketplaces such as Silk Road and Hydra Markets. do. ”
The statement cited X (formerly Twitter) posts from accounts linked to Samourai Wallet and its founders as part of the indictment.
Is your privacy under attack? BTC recovery halted
However, Ki Young Ju, founder of on-chain analytics CryptoQuant, deemed the arrest of the Samourai wallet founder as misguided and not for “real” criminals. that witty,
“US DOJ arrests #Bitcoin privacy technology pioneer. Privacy is a core value of Bitcoin. Mixing itself is not a crime. Cryptocurrency exchanges also use mixing to protect user privacy. “It’s like punishing the person who invented the knife instead of the person who uses it.”
Cryptocurrency mixers enhance the privacy of cryptocurrency trading and are very welcome. This is especially true because Google can now track some blockchain addresses and related transactions.
Ethereum (ETH) Founder Vitalik Buterin also favors cryptocurrency mixer Railgun and recently defended his actions, saying:Privacy is normal.”
Likewise, Muneeb Ali, co-founder of Stacks. repeated Buterin’s stance on the Samourai Wallet founder’s legal issues. he emphasized.
“Privacy should be normal, not illegal.”
However, cryptocurrency mixers make illicit transactions difficult to trace and have been one of criminals’ preferred methods of money laundering. Tornado Cash was recently sanctioned for that.
Swan Bitcoin’s Yan Pritzker’s reaction to Samourai Wallet was mixed. He defended the founders who provided privacy technology to Bitcoin, saying:
“Samurai was trying to do the right thing by bringing privacy-preserving technology to a lot of legitimate people. Criminal use is a small part of mixed use. “The seller you use your Bitcoin for has no way of knowing how many Bitcoins you own.”
But Pritzker also chastised the founders for taking a stab at the U.S. DoJ; highlighted that,
“But going around promoting services to criminals was wrong, and the design of using a centralized, corporate-run coordinator was a clear SPOF and it was obvious that if they continued poking the bear, they would get attacked.”
Within hours of development, the BTC recovery was halted as the price fell below $67,000. At the time of writing, BTC is barely holding on to the $64K level.