On Thursday, Samourai Wallet co-founder Keonne Rodriguez received a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of charges that his wallet software allowed criminals to launder millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. This was the maximum sentence Rodriguez could receive for the associated charges.

The sentence was handed down just a couple of weeks after Binance co-founder Chengpang “CZ†Zhao was pardoned by President Trump of charges related to money laundering during his time at the crypto exchange.

Judge Cote: His business marketed itself to the criminal world. He literally laundered criminal money. There is no recognition of the human suffering that was facilitated by the defendant. Pending sentence he’s been engaged in a project to recover money from hacks

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) November 6, 2025

According to prosecutors, Samourai Wallet had two features, Ricochet and Whirlpool, that enhanced user privacy and helped criminals launder funds. While many Bitcoin users have claimed Samourai Wallet was nothing more than open-source software, there was some degree of centralization involved at times, and Samourai servers also collected fees despite operating in a non-custodial manner.

Another key point brought up by the prosecution throughout the trial (and when the initial charges were announced) was Samourai Wallet’s social media activities, particularly on X, where the use of Samourai Wallet by criminals was promoted.

On top of the five-year prison sentence, Rodriguez also received a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Rodriguez’s fellow co-founder, William Lonergan Hill, is still awaiting sentencing.

Similarities to the Tornado Cash Case

According to The Rage, Rodriguez pled guilty to a subsection of the money transmission licensing law related to the knowing transmission of proceeds from illicit activities. This was the same law Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm was convicted of violating earlier this year.

Tornado Cash is a decentralized application (dapp) on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to similarly mix their funds in an effort to gain a higher degree of crypto privacy. As a dapp on the Ethereum blockchain, there was perhaps even less argument for any sort of point of centralization in that case.

Assistant Attorney General Galeotti gave an encouraging but incomplete speech at the AIP summit today. The highlight is a commitment to respect FinCEN guidance on non-custodial software development going forward. That’s good to hear. But Coin Center has some questions.

He said,…

— Peter Van Valkenburgh (@valkenburgh) August 21, 2025

Notably, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) told prosecutors that Samourai Wallet likely did not qualify as a money services business (MSB) due to its non-custodial structure six months prior to charges being filed against the wallet developers.

Additionally, in August, U.S. Department of Justice Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Matthew Galeotti indicated new charges would not be brought against developers of crypto software that “is truly decentralized and solely automates peer-to-peer transactions, and where a third-party does not have custody and control over user assets.â€

Crypto Developers Remain Unprotected

While Trump claimed he would operate as the Crypto President during his second term in office, protections for node operators and developers have still not been enshrined in federal law. Instead, an executive order that discusses protections for non-custodial crypto developers is the only action that has been taken thus far.

The GENIUS Act was passed earlier this year; however, this legislation was focused almost entirely on stablecoins, which the Trump administration views as a way of protecting the dominance of the U.S. dollar throughout the world. A bill associated with structuring the crypto market from a regulatory perspective, known as the Clarity Act, was originally expected to pass before the end of the year, but it’s unclear what will be included in the bill and whether Congress will even be able to get to it amidst the government shutdown and other delays.

Coin Center, which is a crypto advocacy group in Washington, made a blog post this week about the importance of the protections for developers found in the House version of the Clarity Act to remain in the Senate version of the bill as well.

“These are fundamental and reasonable limitations on who should have an obligation to go get permission before they engage in certain activities relating to digital commodities,†wrote Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh. “Nobody wants the publishers of mere wallet software to be treated as if they hold the financial assets of those who use their software to hold their own assets (§409(6)). Nobody wants the core developers of Bitcoin or Ethereum to have to get permission before they suggest and publish new versions of the protocol code (§409(4)).â€

It’s pretty disturbing that we’re watching a fund linked directly to the president accumulate every shitcoin under the sun presumably in preparation to announce extremely favorable policy that will pump his bags, and almost no one in charge is pushing back against the ethics.

— ð“ð—ðŒð‚ (@TXMCtrades) January 23, 2025

The question of priorities for the Trump administration must be raised when centralized crypto exchange operators are getting pardoned and SEC cases against peddlers of dubious tokens are being dropped, while at the same time, crypto wallet and app developers are given prison sentences.

If better protections for those who are simply writing or using software are not included in the Clarity Act, it will further solidify Trump’s role as “The Shitcoin President†who is mainly interested in using this technology to further empower himself and his family, whether it be by accepting money from the crypto lobby or profiting off his own family’s crypto schemes.