The DOJ’s Bitzlato Buzzkill; Genesis Teeters Toward the Edge

So, how about that DOJ presser? The U.S. Department of Justice promised a “major, international cryptocurrency enforcement action” on Wednesday, prompting speculation that it might announce news related to the crypto exchange Binance (which it has reportedly been investigating for its compliance with U.S. anti-money laundering laws and sanctions since 2018) or other firms like Celsius and Three Arrows Capital, which collapsed last year and filed for bankruptcy.

Instead, federal authorities announced it had charged a Russian national who ran a Hong Kong-based crypto exchange, Bitzlato, with unlicensed money transmitting for facilitating the movement of illicit money. The news spawned confusion (and plenty of memes on Twitter) among crypto journalists, executives and traders, many of whom had never heard of Bitzlato.