Bitcoin Mixing Service Shut Down: CEO Gets 5 Years

A big shake-up happened in the crypto world. The boss of Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez, got a five-year prison sentence. Why? He ran a service that mixed up Bitcoin to hide where the money came from. Prosecutors say this service laundered a huge amount of money—over $237 million. Rodriguez and his partner, William Lonergan Hill, were arrested last year. They were charged with money laundering and running an unlicensed money business. After a lot of legal back and forth, they both pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. This deal got them out of the more serious money laundering charge, which could have landed them in prison for 20 years. So, what did Samourai Wallet do? It had two services: Whirlpool and Ricochet. These services made it super hard to track Bitcoin. Whirlpool mixed up Bitcoin from different users. Ricochet added extra steps to make tracing even tougher. Over time, more than 80, 000 Bitcoins—worth over $2 billion—went through these services. That’s a lot of money! But here’s the kicker: Rodriguez and Hill didn’t just run the service. They actively encouraged people to use it for illegal stuff. In private messages, Rodriguez called it “money laundering for Bitcoin. ” Hill even promoted it on dark web forums as a way to make illegal money untraceable. The case is part of a bigger effort to crack down on crypto mixing services. The government is serious about stopping these kinds of operations. They say services like these make it easier for criminals to hide their tracks. Rodriguez asked for a shorter sentence—just one year. But the judge gave him the maximum: five years. Hill’s sentencing is happening soon. The government wants the same five-year sentence for him.