Trump Administration Disbands DOJ Crypto Enforcement Unit

The U.S. Justice Department is shutting down its dedicated cryptocurrency enforcement unit, marking a significant shift in how the Trump administration approaches digital asset oversight.

In a memo sent Monday evening, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced that the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) “shall be disbanded effective immediately.” The four-page internal document signaled a broader rollback of crypto-related enforcement as part of the Trump administration’s deregulatory stance.

Blanche, who previously represented President Donald Trump in his 2024 criminal trial resulting in 34 felony convictions, emphasized in the memo that “the digital assets industry is critical to the nation’s economic development and innovation.”

He went on to stress that “the department of justice is not a digital assets regulator,” adding a sharp rebuke of former President Joe Biden’s approach: “However, the prior administration used the justice department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution.”

Going forward, the Justice Department will shift focus. Blanche wrote that it will no longer pursue enforcement actions that “have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets while President Trump’s actual regulators do this work outside the punitive criminal justice framework.”

Instead, investigations and prosecutions related to crypto will now concentrate on cases involving actual criminal activity. These include individuals who “victimize digital asset investors” or those who use cryptocurrencies in connection with “terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, hacking, and cartel and gang financing.”

Blanche explained that dissolving the NCET aligns with an executive order President Trump signed in January at the beginning of his second term. The order instructs the government to protect the rights of individuals and private entities to lawfully use open blockchain networks, stating the goal is to “protect and promote the ability of individual citizens and private-sector entities alike to access and use for lawful purposes open public blockchain networks without persecution.”

Additionally, Blanche directed that Justice Department officials “will no longer target virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.” He further ordered that any ongoing investigations “inconsistent” with this new policy “should be closed.”

According to the department’s website, NCET was created under the Biden administration to address the criminal use of cryptocurrencies, with a team of experts focused on cybercrime, money laundering, and crypto-related cases.

The dismantling of NCET comes amid Trump’s push to position the U.S. as the “crypto capital of the planet.” Throughout his presidential campaign, he promoted pro-crypto policies and actively courted support from the digital asset industry.

Last fall, Trump and his sons announced their involvement in launching World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture. Prior to his second inauguration, Trump also introduced a crypto token.

As reported by Reuters, the Trump family holds a 75% stake in the net revenues from token sales by World Liberty Financial.

In March, Trump signed an executive order to establish a U.S. strategic crypto reserve and shortly afterward hosted a roundtable at the White House with key leaders from the crypto sector.