Good point you raised.

It’s not just FUD in my opinion — blockchain analytics firms are getting more powerful, and regulators are definitely pushing exchanges to blacklist “tainted” coins. That said, BTC itself doesn’t discriminate, it’s always fungible on-chain. The problem comes from centralized exchanges and custodians choosing to treat some coins as “dirty” and others as “clean.”

For regular users, the risk is real if you’re moving coins through KYC exchanges or holding them there. If you self-custody and use BTC peer-to-peer, it’s much harder for anyone to freeze your funds.

So yes, it’s partly a way to funnel people into regulated exchanges, but also a genuine issue to be aware of — especially for those who don’t check the source of their coins.