WSJ: Bitcoin Exchanges Probed Over Shuttered Drug Market

WSJ reports:

U.S. authorities have opened a new front in their investigation into bitcoin exchanges and other businesses that deal in the online currency, examining possible ties between the firms and the online drug bazaar Silk Road, according to people familiar with the matter.

The new focus of the investigation is the latest indication of how the shuttered online drug market has become linked to bitcoin, tainting the currency with associations of shady activity as its advocates stress to regulators its legitimacy. It comes after prosecutors in January criminally charged the owner of one bitcoin exchange over alleged ties to Silk Road.

One of the people familiar with the matter said the investigation was at an early stage, and conclusions hadn't been reached as to whether the exchanges were connected with Silk Road.

Remember, I wrote this yesterday before the WSJ story came out:

Last night at a dinner-discussion group in San Francisco, I made the following prediction:

There will be a second wave of Bitcoin-related arrests that will include some very big names beyond the tech-libertarian world that has most closely been associated with Bitcoin.

My suspicion is that investigations are on-going that are non-Silk Road related that could snare all kinds of people that thought they were operating anonymously when dealing with Bitcoin.  I am aware of one very big name (non-libertarian) person that most people are aware, or at least the person's product, who may have the Feds breathing down his neck.