Crypto advocacy groups have urged the United States authorities to dismiss the case against Bitcoin mixer Samourai Wallet. The plea is coming after their amicus briefs, filed earlier this week on behalf of the platform, were rejected by a federal judge.
According to the crypto advocacy groups, along with other organizations, they want the dismissal of the charges against the Bitcoin mixer, which was charged with operating as an illegal money transmitter.
In the briefs filed on behalf of the platform, the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, the Bitcoin Policy Institute, and the DeFi Education Fund argued that Samourai only helped people carry out their financial transactions online without violating any laws in the United States.
Samourai wallet acted as a Bitcoin mixing service, allowing people to mask previous crypto transactions that the feds shut down in April 2024. Police arrested its developers, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill. The United States Department of Justice mentioned that the app was acting as an unlicensed money-transmitting business used by criminals.
1/ Today @BlockchainAssn, along with @fund_defi, are sharing an amicus brief supporting the motion to dismiss Count II in the Samourai Wallet case. The government's novel legal theory threatens to criminalize software developers who build tools that help people control their own… pic.twitter.com/QFZadJrXv4
— Marisa Tashman Coppel (@MTCoppel) June 6, 2025
Crypto advocacy groups want charges against Samourai Wallet dismissed
The DeFi Education Fund, alongside the Blockchain Association, argued that the illegal money-transmitting count was invalid because prosecuting software developers who do not have access to user funds is outside the meaning of the statute.
This means that the arrested parties only wrote the software, which has since been used by others to transfer user funds, and never dealt with the money themselves.
The crypto advocacy groups also mentioned that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has also determined that entities need total independent control to be classified as money transmitters.
“[The government’s] interpretation of the money-transmitting laws to cover non-custodial software tools generated widespread shock and alarm in the cryptocurrency world, which had long relied on the government’s clear and correct guidance saying the opposite,” the brief submitted by the Blockchain Association and the DeFi Education Fund read.
Speaking on the issue, the chief legal officer and executive director of the DeFi Education Fund, Amanda Tuminelli, said that it is normal for people to want privacy. “Privacy is normal: it’s normal for people to want to be able to make financial transactions on-chain whilst still maintaining privacy—people do that with cash every day in their regular lives,” Tuminelli said.
Samourai Wallet developers urge the court to vacate their charges
Coin Center’s executive director Peter Van Valkenburgh also said that the defendants operating a coinjoin server does not mean they controlled user funds and justified being treated as a money transmitter under the FinCEN guideline in 2019.
Meanwhile, Lawyers representing the defendants, Rodriguez and Lonergan Hill, submitted paperwork last week, calling for the dismissal of the case. The paperwork mentioned that the users of the app were always in control of their Bitcoin.
Crypto mixing applications have made headlines in the United States since 2022, following a ban on Ethereum-based Tornado Cash. Authorities mentioned that the platform had become the go-to place for criminals trying to launder their ill-gotten funds. The feds alleged that the application’s co-founder Roman Storm and his partner Roman Semenov, laundered more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds.
Politicians have also been speaking about the case, with one of the most popular crypto exchanges in America, Coinbase, funding a lawsuit to argue against the sanction of Tornado Cash.
The United States Treasury mentioned in March that it had removed Tornado Cash from the list of platforms sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In April, a federal court permanently barred the agency from reimposing sanctions on the platform.
KEY Difference Wire helps crypto brands break through and dominate headlines fast
