Coinspeaker
CryptoQuant CEO Disagrees with DOJ’s Intent on Samourai Wallet Charge

Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, has opposed the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) charge on two co-founders of crypto mixing service Samourai Wallet.

The CEO’s stance aligns with most opinions from experts and investors in the broader crypto market.

CryptoQuant CEO Stands by Samourai Wallet Co-founders

A quick back story. Samourai Wallet founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill were both arrested on Monday after being charged with money laundering offenses by the DOJ. The minimum penalty for the charges is five years, and the maximum is twenty years.

Their arrest was part of an effort from the US government to prosecute protocols used for crypto mixing tools. Regulators noted that these tools could be used by bad actors and foreign governments to conceal fund transactions.

However, CryptoQuant’s CEO sternly criticized the DOJ for pressing charges against Samourai Wallet founders in a rare advocacy move. He noted that Rodriguez and Hill are both pioneers in Bitcoin’s privacy technology. According to him, privacy stands...