The pair's plea change comes amid Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's ongoing criminal trial on similar charges.

What to know:

• The pair behind Samourai Wallet cut a deal to plead guilty to lesser charges on Wednesday, drastically reducing their potential sentencing when they face that next step in November.

• The plea deal came just as a jury in the same court started work assessing its verdict in the Tornado Cash case, which involved similar government accusations against Roman Storm.

• Samourai developers Keonne Rodriguez and William "Bill" Lonergan Hill admitted operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and agreed to forfeit almost $238 million.

The developers of bitcoin mixing service Samourai Wallet pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business on Wednesday, taking a plea deal that drastically cut their potential prison time for their role in creating a privacy tool prosecutors say was used to launder more than $100 million in dirty money.