Hanging over the crypto market for years has been the DoJ prosecution of developers writing code that some "bad people"tm somewhere used for "bad" things.
Code is speech was on trial.
And according to a memo by deputy AG reported on today, that chapter seems to have come to an end. We are all eager to see what happens to the court cases of the Tornado Cash peeps and esp the Samourai ones. My god, what a win it'd be if this is realized.
The new policy underscores the Justice Department’s move to align with President Trump’s affinity for crypto products. Trump in January said his administration would support the growth of the crypto industry, which for years has clashed with regulators and prosecutors over its scanty compliance with investor-protection and illicit-finance rules.
And:
[Roman] Storm, whose trial is set for July, has said he is being unfairly targeted for how third parties used his service. “We read this memo as supporting the dismissal of the case against Roman,” said Brian Klein, an attorney for Storm. “As we’ve said all along, it should never have been brought.” Blanche’s memo suggested that prosecutors shouldn’t bring cases like the one against Storm. The department will run down individuals and enterprises that engage in illicit financing, the memo said, “but will not pursue actions against the platforms that these enterprises utilize to conduct their illegal activities.”
"It's impossible to overstate how massive this is"
says Matt Odell
I didn't believe it when it was just WaPo posting it... but by now it seems legit.
ONE OF US, ONE OF US(?):
According to a financial disclosure [Deputy AG] Blanche filed before taking office, he owned cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, Ethereum, solana, cardano and polygon. Most of his holdings were valued under $15,000, but he owned between $100,000 and $250,000 in bitcoin, according to his disclosure.
non-paywalled here: https://archive.md/xFkNN