On Meidas Defense: cryptocurrency, sanctions, and Trump quid pro quo

Last week I joined Joe Plenzler on the Meidas Defense podcast to talk about crypto. Meidas Defense is the MeidasTouch Network’s national security show, so we spent more time than I usually do on crypto as a geopolitical problem, in addition to a consumer protection one. The full episode and transcript are up on the Meidas newsletter, and there’s a shorter cut on YouTube:

The use of crypto for sanctions evasion isn’t something I’ve covered in depth yet, and so this was a great opportunity to dig into it. While crypto used to be more of a supplement to the usual shell companies and shadow banks that sanctioned states rely on, now it is core infrastructure. According to Chainalysis, the value of cryptoassets received by sanctioned states increased almost 700% last year as Russia moved huge sums through the A7A5 ruble-backed stablecoin, and more than 50% of crypto-denominated funds going into Iran in late 2025 were sent to wallets linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).¹

Joe and I also had a great conversation about the domestic side of this story. While the Trump administration says it wants to crack down on crypto-enabled sanctions evasion, it disbanded the Justice Department’s crypto enforcement team and pardoned Binance’s founder after the company pleaded guilty to compliance failures that included enabling Iranian sanctions evasion. Trump personally is doing lucrative business with Binance, even as reports suggest the exchange has continued to knowingly allow Iran to evade sanctions [I110].

You can watch or listen to the full episode at the Meidas newsletter, or check out the shorter version on YouTube.