The Donald Trump administration scrapped the Justice Division’s (DoJ) crypto policing unit yesterday, accusing the earlier authorities of pursuing a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution.”
That’s based on a memo despatched by the DoJ on Monday night time and reviewed by Fortune. Within the memo, Deputy Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche introduced that the Nationwide Cryptocurrency Enforcement Group (NCET) could be disbanded “effective immediately” in keeping with Trump’s January crypto government order.
Blanche reportedly instructed DoJ staff to keep away from pursuing instances in opposition to totally different crypto exchanges, crypto mixers, and “offline wallets.” As an alternative, he instructed them to deal with “prosecuting individuals who victimize digital asset investors.”
“The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator. However, the prior administration used the Justice Department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution,” Blanche claimed.
The crypto enforcement unit was introduced in 2021 underneath the Biden administration and was tasked with tackling “complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency.”
The NCET has helped with inquiries in opposition to the likes of Binance, crypto mixer Twister Money, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and suspected North Korean hackers, and helped launch fees in opposition to the suspected hackers of Mt Gox.
The NCET’s shuttering is one other signal of the Trump administration’s lax method to crypto coverage, which has seen quite a few lawsuits in opposition to crypto companies dropped solely or paused.
Certainly, Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren referred to as for an investigation into the Securities and Trade Fee over this lax method, searching for to uncover whether or not or not Trump’s administration profited from these regulatory adjustments.
