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 Saturday, August 26th, and that means it's time for the weekly recap.

Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it,

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breakdown pod. Well, friends, welcome back to the weekend.

We have a lot of follow-ups today.

For a summer week, there was kind of a lot going on.

And so let's dive in with a follow-up to the most dramatic news of the week, which was certainly

the indictment of Roman Storm and Roman Seminoff in relation to their operation of the

tornado cash protocol. and Roman Seminoff in relation to their operation of the Tornado Cash Protocol. You will remember that

the pair are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations,

and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Storm has been arrested and has

already been granted bail. Seminoff remains at large, but was added to the sanctions list personally.

Now, the arrest caused an outcry

across the crypto industry, with many appalled at the apparent attack on privacy, open source

development, and crypto infrastructure more broadly. Others, however, pointed out, and this was

especially after the initial takes had cooled, that contrary to the popular industry take,

the pair seemed to have not just

been charged for merely writing code, but rather for willfully aiding money laundering by

North Korean hackers, the Lazarus Group. Crypto-critic Roe Ryder tweeted,

...