Big governments have many reasons to oppose sovereign monetary technologies like bitcoin. The existence of a permissionless money network provides escape hatches for these states' many levers of centralized control. It is not surprising that they try to throw the regulatory book at cryptocurrencies from any possible angle.
The state of New York is a good case study of this dynamic. The Empire State, home to many titans of the legacy financial system, has promulgated hostile regulations against cryptocurrency applications for years. It set the standard for innovation-killing laws with its 2014 "BitLicense," which led to a virtual exodus of bitcoin businesses from the state. New York's attorney general has turned going after cryptocurrency platforms and users into something of a sport.
