The US Department of Justice (DOJ) got its crypto unit Monday and told staff that DOJ would be “narrowed down” crypto enforcement activities in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s executive order of digital assets that promised to establish “regulatory clarity and security” for the crypto industry.
In his four-page memo to the staff entitled “Completion regulation of prosecution”, US Deputy Government Attorney Todd Blanche announced that the national cryptocurrency-enforcement team (NCET)-created in 2022 under the then President Joe Biden-Ville be “dissolved effectively.”
“The Ministry of Justice is not a regulator for digital assets,” Blanche wrote in the note seen by Coindesk. “However, the prior administration used the Ministry of Justice to pursue a reckless strategy for regulation by prosecution, which was poorly conceived and poorly executed. The Ministry of Justice will no longer pursue litigation or enforcement measures that have the effect of overlaying a regulatory framework on digital assets, while President Trump’s actual regulators carry out this work outside the penalties.”
Blanche informed the staff that DOJ would no longer pursue cases against crypto exchanges, mixing services or offline wallets “for the actions of their end user or Uvitt violation of regulations.” The staff were ordered not to charge violation of regulatory violations in cases involving crypto, including violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), unlicensed money that is transmitting and other violations associated with federal security and commodity law.
Instead, DOJ staff were ordered to focus their resources on “prosecution of people who sacrifice digital asset investors” or who use crypto to promote criminal activities such as terrorism or gang financing.
“Ongoing investigations that are incompatible with the previous one must be closed,” Blanche wrote, adding that his office will work with DOJ’s criminal department to “undergo ongoing cases of consistency with this policy.”
NCET is not the first federal crypto -tag force that was dissolved since Trump joined in January. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) wrote a number of specialized enforcement teams, including a cryptophocused team, down to only two as part of acting chairman Caroline Pham’s plan to increase efficiency and “Stop regulation by enforcement.”
NCET worked on many of DOJ’s high -profile crypto cases in recent years, including Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash and several of its developers and Mango Market Exploiter Avi Eisenberg, who is facing penalties later this week after being convicted of fraud and market manipulation.
The memo comes a week and a half after Trump pardoned Crypto Trading Platform Bitmex and its founders and senior leaders after their previously guilty pleas of banking charges.
