Crypto: Us ‘crypto Capital’ Claim Tested By Developer Prosecutions 2026
The Trump administration is celebrating the GENIUS Act and its pro‑crypto agenda, yet Tornado Cash and Samourai prosecutions fuel doubts that US developers are truly in the clear.
The White House praised President Donald Trump for making the United States the “crypto capital of the world,” and cast the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act as the catalyst in making the country the “global leader in cryptocurrency.”
In a recent post on X, an official communication added, “promises made, promises kept,” to Trump ending the Biden era “crusade to crush crypto.”
Moving beyond the rhetoric, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced a joint event on Thursday to discuss “harmonization between the two agencies and their efforts to deliver on President Trump’s promise.”
While many in the industry may accept that policy direction has shifted, for others, like Roman Storm, the Tornado Cash co‑founder awaiting sentencing, ongoing prosecutions of developers make it hard to claim the crackdown is truly over.
In a Monday reply to the White House, Storm said it was encouraging to see America celebrate itself as the crypto capital, but stressed that a genuine leader “isn’t just about stablecoin legislation like the GENIUS Act – it’s about protecting the developers who build the foundational code.”
The Samourai Wallet case underlines that concern, as founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill received lengthy prison sentences in November 2025 after US authorities said they facilitated illicit flows through Samourai, despite its non‑custodial design.
Related: Samourai co-founder claims Biden-era lawfare in calling for Trump pardon
For many builders, the combination of non‑custodial architecture and custodial‑style penalties blurs the line between publishing code and running a financial intermediary.
That anxiety has already reached Capitol Hill, where Senators Cynthia Lummis and Ron Wyden recently introduced the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act to make clear that non‑custodial developers and infrastructure providers who do not control user funds are not money transmitters under federal law.
Source: CoinTelegraph
