Keonne Rodriguez, co-founder of the now-shuttered Bitcoin privacy wallet 
Samourai Wallet, has published an appeal from federal prison asking the 
Bitcoin community for donations to help cover more than $2 million in 
accumulated legal debt — after acknowledging that hopes for a presidential 
pardon have effectively faded. Related Reading: Bitcoin Uptrend Still Healthy, 
But Volume Divergence Raises Questions Rodriguez, 37, is five months into a 
60-month sentence at FPC Morgantown, a federal prison camp in West Virginia. 
In a post published on X on May 6, written in his own name, he described a 
financial situation that has left him and his wife Lauren with no remaining 
options. Daily calls and letters from lawyers demanding payment, combined with 
ongoing pressure from the Department of Justice to begin making good on a 
$250,000 court-imposed fine, have made the situation untenable, he wrote. The 
Financial Toll Of The Case &#8211; Bitcoin Community&#8217;s Rol The legal debt Rodriguez 
is carrying reflects the scale of a federal case that stretched from his April 
2024 arrest through a guilty plea in July 2025 and sentencing in November of 
the same year. Rodriguez and co-founder William Lonergan Hill — who received a 
four-year sentence — pleaded guilty to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed 
money-transmitting business, forfeiting approximately $6.37 million in fees 
earned from Samourai&#8217;s operations as part of the judgment, according to the 
U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Southern District of New York. Rodriguez told 
journalist and Bitcoin educator Natalie Brunell in December 2025, as reported 
by CoinDesk, that he accepted the plea after calculating that proceeding to 
trial carried the risk of significantly longer prison time and millions more 
in legal costs. The calculation did not spare him the financial consequences 
of the defense itself. Pardon Hopes Have Dimmed In the X post, Rodriguez 
addressed directly what many in the community had hoped for. President Trump 
indicated in December 2025 that he would review the case and consider a pardon 
— a statement that generated brief optimism, particularly given Trump&#8217;s 
earlier pardons of Binance founder Changpeng &#8220;CZ&#8221; Zhao and Silk Road founder 
Ross Ulbricht. The Bitcoin 2026 conference came and went without action. &#8220;One 
must come to terms with the fact that I am simply a federal prisoner without 
money, power, or influence,&#8221; Rodriguez wrote in the post, &#8220;and I will serve my 
full sentence.&#8221; A petition supporting a pardon had gathered approximately 
15,955 signatures as of May 7, according to Cryip.co. Rodriguez directed 
donation requests to the Bitcoin address 
bc1qtjjcvn98wh7dfd55m8kxhjcfexanttwt8gtan8, with private alternatives 
available through his wife&#8217;s X account. At the time of writing, the address 
provided by Rodriguez shows around $65,000 in donations. A Case That Redefined 
Developer Liability Samourai Wallet served over 100,000 users and processed 
more than $2 billion in Bitcoin transactions since its 2015 launch, according 
to the DOJ. Federal prosecutors argued that co-founders Rodriguez and Hill 
knowingly facilitated criminal activity through the platform&#8217;s Whirlpool 
mixing and Ricochet hopping services, citing court evidence including private 
communications and public statements made by both men promoting the tools to 
users seeking to obscure transaction origins. The case has continued to anchor 
a broader debate within the Bitcoin and open-source development community over 
whether builders of non-custodial software tools can face criminal liability 
for how third parties choose to use their code. The Cato Institute argued the 
prosecution risked a chilling effect on privacy advocates, human rights 
activists, and software developers alike, per earlier reporting. The original 
Samourai code continues to circulate through the Ashigaru fork, developed by 
an independent group of contributors following the platform&#8217;s shutdown. 
Related Reading: Bitcoin Uptrend Still Healthy, But Volume Divergence Raises 
Questions Rodriguez himself warned in December 2025 that Bitcoin miners could 
become the next targets of money transmission enforcement if the legal 
reasoning applied in the Samourai case is taken to its logical conclusion. 
BTC&#8217;s price trends to the upside on the daily chart. Source: BTCUSD on 
Tradingview This development marks a significant and troubling moment for the 
nascent sector — one that will likely continue to shape how developers, 
lawyers, and regulators think about the line between building financial 
privacy tools and operating financial infrastructure under US law. Cover image 
from Grok, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview

Samourai Wallet Founder Writes From Prison Asking Bitcoin Community For Help — Family Is Out Of Options

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Joe Lonsdale: Religious persecution in Nigeria is a critical global issue, Iran’s destabilizing influence on Lebanon, and the US is poised for a nuclear energy resurgence | Shawn Ryan Show

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Bitcoin continues to maintain a strong bullish structure, with price action 
steadily grinding higher across multiple timeframes. While bulls remain in 
control for now, the growing divergence between price and volume could signal 
slowing momentum and increase the risk of a pullback if buying pressure fails 
to return. A Hold Above Key Support At $74,937 As long as Bitcoin maintains 
its position above the critical floor of $74,937, the current upward momentum 
remains intact. Market analyst Kamile Uray notes that the primary obstacle for 
bulls during this ascent is the $98,000 resistance level. Establishing a daily 
close above this threshold would clear the path for the asset to test the next 
major supply zone located between $107,000 and $109,000. Related Reading: 
Bitcoin Tests Crucial $80,000 Resistance: One Move Could Change Everything The 
$107,000–$109,000 range is expected to serve as a formidable barrier for price 
action. Should Bitcoin struggle to gain further traction and fail to sustain a 
breakthrough above $126,199, the market may face a significant rejection. Such 
a failure at these elevated levels would likely trigger a pullback as traders 
take profits and momentum stalls. In the event of a retracement, the 
$68,000–$71,000 region could provide the necessary liquidity to stabilize the 
price. However, if the selling pressure intensifies, the $60,000–$62,433 range 
will become a vital support corridor. A decisive daily close below the 
psychological $60,000 mark would be a bearish signal, suggesting that the 
decline is deepening, leading to a significant, long-term market correction. 
Bitcoin Climbs Higher Despite Declining Volume In a recent update, JDK 
Analysis noted that Bitcoin continues to grind higher, but trading volume has 
been steadily declining during the move. Despite the drop in volume, lower 
timeframes still indicate a very strong structural uptrend, with no obvious 
signs of weakness or breakdowns at present. As a result, there is currently no 
clear short-term setup worth acting on, as buyers continue to maintain control 
of the market structure. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Gains Fade After 
Strong Rally Push Sparks Profit-Taking Price has also front-ran the next major 
resistance zone, meaning it moved aggressively before properly testing that 
level. If Bitcoin revisits the area, particularly around the all-time high 
anchored VWAP (aVWAP), attention will shift toward the possibility of an SFP 
(swing failure pattern) forming at the current highs, which could provide a 
potential short trigger. For bullish setups, the $73,000–$74,000 region 
remains the next key area of interest for possible long opportunities. Rather 
than chasing prices higher at current levels, the preference is to wait for a 
deeper pullback into a cleaner support zone before considering new positions. 
With market conditions becoming increasingly extended, protecting capital 
remains the top priority, while profit opportunities come second. Featured 
image from Pixabay, chart from Tradingview.com

Samourai Wallet Founder Writes From Prison Asking Bitcoin Community For Help — Family Is Out Of Options

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