Ban Crypto, And America’s Drug Problem is Solved – Bingo!

Ban crypto, and immediately we have no problems with illegal drugs, right?

OPINION
article-image

Midjourney modified by Blockworks

share

Cash has no intent. Cash is neutral.

Bank notes are, in fact, non-sentient, and undiscerning about their ownership.

A twenty spot doesn’t care if you buy gasoline with it, bribe a border control officer with it, or shove it up your nose and snort cocaine with it. (Not life advice.)

And nobody in the US government is trying to ban cash. Because that would be idiotic.

Cash can be used in criminal activities. But cash is not criminal. Criminals are criminal, and sometimes criminals use cash, so we’ve found lots of ways as a society to make trade-offs with cash, like putting limits on how much you can carry in and out of the country.

This makes it somewhat harder for criminals to use, without making it impossible for the vast majority of us who simply find it handy to occasionally buy stuff with bits of paper.

If it seems obvious where I’m heading with this, consider yourself smarter than some of the people in Congress who haven’t yet grasped the logic of my parallel argument.

Here it is:

Crypto has no intent. Crypto is neutral.

Crypto is, in fact, non-sentient, and undiscerning about its ownership.

And nobody in the US government is trying to ban crypto. Because that would be idiotic.

Crypto can be used in criminal activities. But crypto is not crim… okay, you get the point.

Here at Blockworks, we have an editorial policy that you may find interesting.

For the most part, we do not cover conventional crimes in which the only connection to our industry is the fact that crypto is used as a means of value exchange.

Why not? For the same reason that American Banker does not cover crimes in which cash is used as a means of value exchange.

It’s irrelevant. It’s not novel, or interesting. Almost without exception, the crime is the story, not the way value is extracted or exchanged. 

And we’re not a news outlet that covers crime for titillation.

The fact is, criminals need to exchange value, just like the rest of us. They will use cash when it’s convenient. Diamonds. Bearer bonds. Cryptocurrencies. They will barter away secrets, trade in weapons, even traffic human beings.

Because criminals are criminal.

But diamonds, bearer bonds, and cryptocurrencies are not criminal. They are simply things of value.

So when Elizabeth Warren (yes, her again) starts up with her hyperbolic nonsense about how crypto enables the Fentanyl trade, you can be sure that this is as idiotic as it sounds.

And since Elizabeth Warren is not an idiot, you can only assume that her rationale for saying such an idiotic thing is malintent.

It’s fair to say that some criminals use cryptocurrency in the course of their criminal actions.

And as Senator Warren is well aware, it’s also fair to say that some criminals use cash to finance their operations. And some use credit cards. And some use offshore bank transfers. And so on. (At least blockchain gives law enforcement a path right to the criminals’ money, in many cases.)

Crypto is a neutral technology.

But people can be good or bad.

And people can also be downright dumb, like the fearmongers who would have you believe that if you ban crypto, there’s no Fentanyl trade.

I grew up with Miami Vice.

Pretty sure there was no crypto in those days. Pretty sure there were plenty of drugs.


This op-ed was originally published in the Blockworks newsletter: Subscribe below.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Nillion_DeSci_Report_Template.png

Research

Nillion’s Monad Integration is poised to catalyze the next phase of DeSci’s evolution by eliminating key privacy bottlenecks. This synergy allows researchers, institutions, and DAOs to exchange sensitive data and insights securely while managing governance and payments onchain.

article-image

A community-driven, radically fair currency model is challenging Worldcoin’s biometric vision

article-image

Sponsored

DePIN powers a global network for AI computes, storage, streaming, and IPFS pinning service, enabling AI to be developed and deployed in a decentralized environment with greater transparency, control, and ownership

article-image

Bitcoin has broken its previous price record of $109,026 set on Jan. 19, 2025

article-image

The SEC filed the suit on Tuesday night, alleging that some Unicoin executives made “false and misleading statements” and violated securities laws

article-image

VanEck’s Pranav Kanade told Blockworks that it doesn’t plan to launch a similar fund for other ecosystems at this time