Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big-picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Monday, April 29th, and today we are talking about Operation

Choke Point 2.0. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please

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So last week, we saw a ton of action from three-letter agencies. The sense that started to

emerge was that the crypto industry was perhaps facing another wave of crackdowns.

There was the IRS releasing forms that would require reporting from self-hosted wallets and

dexes, there were

multiple lawsuits filed against the SEC pushing back on regulatory overreach.

Things really came to a head with the arrest of samurai wallet developers on Wednesday.

The charges were conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an

unlicensed money transmission business. And while one conclusion might have been that this was

just the next step in the crackdown on crypto mixers, some were worried that it would go much farther. Those fears were

stoked on Thursday, with the FBI publishing a warning to crypto users. The agency said they were

investigating money transmitting services that, quote, purposefully break the law or knowingly facilitate

illegal transactions. They warned that users risked losing access to funds.

The problem is that Samurai was a non-custodial wallet, leaving many to wonder, if that could

be targeted, was the FBI making a much bigger warning than it might at first seem?

On Friday's show with Scott Melker, I said that this is beginning to look like the next stage

...