I remember when I first heard of the US intending to "shut down" particular components of crypto, which resulted in them blocking it's citizens from certain exchanges and forbidding them to partake in ICOs. This was when/why that Binance US version emerged btw and I remember the very first words I responded with to the person telling me the news: That's not a shut down, that's a lock in.

Fast forward to May 2022, and a certain US citizen who foolishly used CEXes to buy/trade approximately 10 million Dollars worth of crypto to then (indirectly) send to the country in question is about to understand why. As a matter of fact he is about to experience that "locked" part in person as he is now about to face criminal charges for it. Now to break down what happened, he did not just send 0.01 BTC to some friend in one of the numerous countries that are on Washington's sanction list, he actually tried to create some sort of business in transferring funds to countries knowing that these were sanctioned and couldn't receive fiat money via e.g. SWIFT bank transfers or online payment systems. But nevertheless if this person ends up in jail, it will lower the bar and soon enough US citizens who transfer significant lower amounts than 10 million Dollars will be at risk as well as the judge even stated "The Department of Justice can and will criminally prosecute individuals and entities for failure to comply with OFAC’s regulations, including as to virtual currency". Remember some EU nations are already tracking citizens' crypto activity and demanding data from exchanges regarding transfers up to 1000 Euro and even try to completely ban anonymous wallets, they're not doing all this just for their peace of mind.

Now, as much as I disagree with all this, it should be noted that the person in question must have had a few screws loose. In the transcript it becomes clear he/she was literally marketing the platform as some sort of sanction evader while being physically present in the United States:"Defendant did not hide the Payments Platform’s illegal activity. Defendant proudly stated the Payments Platform could circumvent U.S. sanctions by facilitating payments via bitcoin.....Defendant made such statements even though Defendant knew of U.S. sanctions against Sanctioned Country...Yet by following the (virtual) money, the government established by probable cause that Defendant was operating the Payments Platform."

You can read the full memorandum here and even though that judge sounds like a complete ***, I do like how he uses the word 'FUD'☺️