According to the CEO of CryptoQuant, it is not a crime to join crypto.
Crypto mingling services are not a crime, writes Ki Yang Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, following the recent arrest of the founders of the Samurai wallet.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has arrested pioneers in Bitcoin privacy, according to Ki, who wrote in an April 25 X post.
“Privacy is a core value of Bitcoin. It is not a crime to mix oneself up. Even crypto exchanges use encryption to protect user privacy. It's like punishing the one who uses the knife, not the one who invented it.
On April 24, Cointelegraph reported that Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and Chief Technology Officer William Hill each face one count of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to conduct an unauthorized money transfer business.
The arrest sparked widespread concern in the crypto community, as participants feared it could signal yet another US government attempt to crack down on the industry.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden called his arrest an attack on financial privacy in an April 24 post:
“The Justice Department has recriminalized the developers of an app that restores financial privacy. The way to fix this is to make money private by default. Privacy should never be ‘exclusive', or you criminalize it.
The DOJ alleges that Zamora Violet “conducted more than $2 billion in illegal transactions and facilitated more than $100 million in illegal dark web money transfers.”
Others interpreted the enforcement action as a crackdown on financial privacy from the DOJ, including crypto analyst Ryan Adams, who wrote in an April 24 post:
“These developers face up to 25 years in prison for writing code. America is sending a message. No transaction is private.”
This isn't the first time authorities have cracked down on privacy-protecting technologies like cryptocurrencies.
In the year In August 2023, the US DOJ charged the developers of crypto mixer Tornado Cash with money laundering, sanctions violations and unauthorized money laundering.
The three developers, including Alexey Persev, were arrested in 2011. In August 2022, just days after the US Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash, North Korea's Lazar group used it to launder over $1 billion worth of crypto.
Related: Runes Are Offering a Significant Lifeline to Bitcoin Miners – TeraWulf CEO
