U.S. DOJ’s Crypto Crime Unit Disbanded — Is Crypto Enforcement Slowing Down?
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The Justice Department (DOJ) has disbanded the National Crypto Enforcement Team. The team had led most of the cases of Binance, Tornado Cash, KuCoin, and BitMEX before it was dismantled. The Department of Justice of the United States has shut down the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), a major shift in how the federal government handles matters pertaining to digital currencies. The new measure is in line with a more general trend initiated by President Donald Trump’s newly signed executive order. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche released this decision in a four-page memo. He also criticized the previous administration’s approach, referring to it as making the DOJ an “improper crypto regulator.”In a memo Blanche noted: “The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator. The prior Administration used the Justice Department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution.” Blanche added that while financial crimes cannot be ignored, enforcement should also not target platforms or developers that are building blockchain technology. From Aggressive Enforcement to Industry-Friendly Oversight Established in 2021 under the Biden administration, the NCET bridged cybercrime and money laundering specialists in DOJ and attorneys selected from district offices. The task force successfully conducted several large-scale operations related to crypto fraud, sanctions evasion, and money laundering cases last year. Among these, the Tornado Cash developers’ trial was quite unique, namely, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov. It was claimed that they offered money laundering services of more than $1 billion and had connections with hacking groups associated with North Korea. The crypto community defended itself, arguing that these accusations produced a stain on the practice of open-sourced software development. The courts later reversed the case and removed Tornado Cash from the OFAC list of blacklisted services. The largest exchange in the world by trade volume, Binance, also was…
Filed under: News - @ April 10, 2025 9:26 am