Coin Stories

Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez: Guilty Plea, Prison Ahead, and the Fight for Privacy in Bitcoin

13 snips
Dec 12, 2025
Keonne Rodriguez, CEO of Samourai Wallet, shares his thoughts on privacy and the legal challenges he faces, including a five-year prison sentence after a guilty plea. He discusses the government's stance on coin-mixing as money laundering and defends financial privacy as a human right. Keonne explains how Samourai Wallet protects users' autonomy against surveillance and reveals the operational intricacies of their tools. He reflects on the implications of losing privacy in a digital world and urges for support in standing up against what he views as a 'weaponized' legal system.
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INSIGHT

Custody Is The Legal Divider

  • Samurai Wallet was a non-custodial Bitcoin wallet that preserved user private keys while adding transactional privacy via Whirlpool.
  • Keonne framed custody as the legal dividing line between software providers and regulated money transmitters.
INSIGHT

FinCEN Said Non‑custodial Is Not Transmission

  • FinCEN guidance (2013, reiterated 2019) said non-custodial anonymity service providers aren’t money transmitters.
  • Keonne believed Samurai complied with those guidelines when they built the software in 2015.
ANECDOTE

Ten Years Open Before The Raid

  • Samurai operated openly for nearly ten years before a 50‑agent FBI raid in April 2024 surprised Keonne.
  • He said legal counsel and industry contemporaries believed the product was lawful prior to the raid.
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