There is no question, at least in my mind, that cryptocurrency presents the ultimate threat to bankers. The idea of a currency that can be transmitted instantly anywhere in the world for free and cannot be manipulated terrifies them, because it is obvious far superior to their own offerings, which divert money from legitimate producers and workers and funnels it into their own pockets.
Their only problem: how to make it illegal? Not a trivial problem.
Let's say some guy in Qatar transmits 100 bitcoins to some other guy in Algeria. How do you make that illegal? It's not even in your country. You going to tell the government of Qatar "Block those bitcoin packets, they are illegal." I mean, heck, you can't even block child porn packets in your own country and now you are going to tell Qatar to start blocking bitcoin packets. Seems difficult.
Seems more plausible to demonize the local person even if they act abroad, kind of like porn tourism. If you transmit bitcoins or run a client, its a crime, but we will only go after US citizens. Seems to be the general strategy Russia is taking. The main problem would seem to be justifying it. Of course, in Russia you don't need to justify anything since it's a dictatorship, but in the United States there are courts and lawmakers and stuff like that which get in the way. You can't just have some pimp in the Treasury department make up a law that instantly turns a million citizens into criminals.
Then, of course, there is the intelligence factor. To get a law passed you need to convince Joe Ohio, the average person, that cryptocurrency is evil, kind of like gambling or drinking to excess. Now, this is not so easy as it might seem. In places like Russia and Bangladesh it's easy, because Russians and Bengalis are morons, but in the United States, it's a tougher sell. Gambling is obviously evil, but internet currency, how is that evil? To Joe Ohio seems sort of like a nerd credit card and credit cards aren't evil, are they? What's the problem?
The problem is money laundering, Joe. Drug dealers are using bitcoins to launder their ill-gotten profits so you need to make bitcoins illegal, got that? Hmm, ok, got to stop the drug dealers. Anyone using bitcoin is a criminal because they are helping drug dealers. Got it, I'll call my congressman.
You are both correct and incorrect Sir. You are correct in the statement that bankers are finally realising that the beauty of bitcoin is now an emerging and direct threat to their parasitic livelihoods. However you are incorrect in that instead of trying to make it illegal, they will more likely put their resources to trying to hack/spam/destroy it. Unfortunately these flthy banker shave a lot of money and resources behind them and over the next few years I can see them using them all for nefarious reasons. Personally I cannot see how you can illegitamise technology.