money-transmitter licenses that companies like PayPal and Western Union have. All these other companies that operate in the financial services sector need these transmitter licenses because now they consider bitcoin to be a store of value. And so my lawyer sent me a letter saying, “We can’t represent you anymore, you need to shut down.” It was a hard thing to do, but we shut down. Six months later, in January 2014, I was giving a talk in Amsterdam. And as I was in passport control coming home, someone walked up to me and said, “Hi, I’m an agent from the FBI. And these are the other agents. You’re being arrested for money laundering.” I was arrested. I served a year under house arrest. Eventually, I called my lawyer and said, “Let’s make a deal.” So I pled guilty to aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business. And for that, I served 18 months in federal prison, and I had three years of probation... It’s a six-year saga that just ended last month. And it’s been a crazy six years for bitcoin, too. Bitcoin has really grown. We saw a massive bubble where the price went to $20,000, crashed back down to $4,000, and is now trading for around $9,000. But I saw something really interesting in prison... There’s no currency in prison. There’s no money. There’s no way to transact. There’s a commissary. You can go every
M y company, BitInstant, was one of the first and largest companies in the bitcoin space from 2011 to 2014. We handled 30% of all the global bitcoin transaction volume. But then came the bitcoin bubble in 2012- 2013... the first real bubble that put bitcoin on the map... when the price went from $100 to $1,200 and then crashed back down over the next few months to $200. And that was around the time that the U.S. government started giving bitcoin some attention and clarified that anyone who operates a bitcoin company needs the same Charlie Shrem is a bitcoin pioneer and host of the Untold Stories podcast... In 2011 at the dawn of the crypto era, Charlie founded BitInstant, the first and largest bitcoin company. In 2013, he founded The Bitcoin Foundation and served as its vice chairman. Since then, Charlie has advised more than a dozen digital currency companies, launched and managed numerous partnerships between crypto and non-crypto companies, and is the go-to guy for some of the world’s wealthiest entrepreneurs. He recently started Crypto.IQ, the premier advisory firm providing expert research, education, and advice in the world of crypto assets.
American Consequences
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