P.S.: A senator or two giving an interview calling for action doesn't count.
I'm appalled that you think they wouldn't want to and considering the little effort involved in debunking the trollfest on these threads (wonder where it came from) why no one should be careful.
Why would "the government" or "the banks" wnt to shut down bitcoin? ...
What we see now is two senators discovering something that can be connected to drugs, noticing that no one else tried to turn it into
political profit yet; they just grab the opportunity to appear "tough on crime".
You answered your own question right there. It takes almost 0 effort for someone high up in the executive branch to kill off the American portion of bitcoin. FBI has jurisdiction on interstate commerce and the Secret Service has jurisdiction on counterfeiting (I am
not saying bitcoin is counterfeiting, I'm saying they can successfully sell it to the media as an anti-counterfeiting operation). There are dozen of bureaucrats in DC with this much power, and all they have to do is sent out a memo to their underlings. A simple email.
If they succeed, they gain political prestige. Tough on crime, war on drugs, et cetera.
If they fail, they can claim it's just part of their job. In the very worst case they are still protected by the Executive privilege.
So far, two Senators have cashed in on this free "political profit". I expect many more to follow suit. This is how ugly our democracy has become.