On January 17th, 2023 the US Justice Department announced charges against cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato and shut down the exchange. Since then, discerning parties have raised questions about the actions of the DOJ and why they are going after relatively unknown companies when so many massive companies have gotten away with much more.

The DOJ’s Big Announcement

Working in conjunction with the FBI, OFAC and FinCEN, the DOJ broke the news on Wednesday that they had taken down the Bitzalato exchange. Earlier in the day, they released an ominous press release about a “major international cryptocurrency enforcement action” to be revealed later that day.