The US Department of Justice (DOJ) was texting the crypto unit on Monday, telling staff that the DOJ was “narrow” the activities that implemented crypto in accordance with the command of US President Donald Trump’s executive in digital ownership, which promised to establish “regulation of clarity and certainty” for the crypto industry.
In his four-page memo of the staff titled “Ending Regulation by Prosecution,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET)-created in 2022 under President Joe Biden-is “Summary.”
“The Department of Justice is not a regulator of digital assets,” Blanche wrote in a memo that CoinDesk saw. “However, the earlier administration used the Department of Justice to pursue a reckless approach of regulatory by persecution, which was ill -conceived and improperly implemented. The Department of Justice did not pursue the litigation or implementation of actions with the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on Digital Assets while the actual regulators of the trumbs are acting regulators of this work outside of the punitive criminal justice framework. “
Blanche informed the staff that the DOJ would no longer pursue cases against crypto exchanges, mixing services or offline wallets “for the works of their end users or accidental violation of regulations.” Staff was ordered not to charge regulatory violations in cases involving crypto, including violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), non -license transmission of money and other violations tied to federal laws and commodity laws.
Instead, DOJ staff has been ordered to focus on their resources in “persecuting individuals who have been victimized by digital asset investors” or using crypto in expanding criminal activities such as terrorism or gang financing.
“The ongoing investigations that are inconsistent with the aforementioned should be closed,” Blanche wrote, adding that his office would cooperate with the DOJ’s criminal division to “review ongoing cases for being the same with this policy.”
The NCET is not the first federal crypto task force to be released since Trump’s office in January. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has dropped a number of specialized implementation teams, including a crypto -oriented team, up to two as part of the acting Chairman of the Caroline Pham to increase efficiency and “stop regulation by implementation.”
NCET has worked in many of the DOJ’s high profile cases in recent years, including Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash and some of the developers and mango markets that exploit Avi Eisenberg, who faces the judgment next week this week After being convicted of fraud and market manipulation.
The memo arrives in a week and a half after Trump forgives the Crypto trading platform Bitmex and its founders and senior executives following their past offense on the Bank Secrecy Act charges.
