DOJ Shuts Down Crypto Crime Unit as Trump Administration Moves to Ease Industry Regulations

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officially disbanded its cryptocurrency investigation division on Monday, a move that signals another major shift by President Donald Trump’s administration in favor of the digital assets sector. The announcement ends the operations of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which had been a central element of the Biden-era approach to addressing criminal activity involving cryptocurrencies.

The closure was made public through an internal department memo sent by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, declaring that NCET would cease to exist “effective immediately.” In the memo, Blanche offered a sharp rebuke of the previous administration’s strategy regarding digital assets, stating, “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 went on to explain the new administration’s approach, adding, “The Justice Department will no longer pursue litigation or 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.”

NCET was originally launched in 2021 during President Biden’s term, with the mandate to investigate and prosecute the misuse of cryptocurrencies in complex financial crimes. At its inception, the DOJ appointed Eun Young Choi, a veteran federal prosecutor, to lead the unit as its first director.

The dissolution of NCET aligns with Trump’s campaign commitments to champion the crypto industry. In March, President Trump signed an executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, an initiative aimed at formalizing the federal government’s management of digital currency holdings.

The month of March also marked significant changes in enforcement actions taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The agency began pulling back from its aggressive posture against crypto firms, first by voluntarily dropping its lawsuit against Coinbase and then by settling a separate legal dispute with Gemini last week.

As part of the administration’s broader effort to clarify its stance on digital assets, the SEC is scheduled to host a crypto-focused roundtable on April 11. The event, organized by the agency’s Crypto Task Force, will be the second in a series of public panels. Titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading,” the roundtable aims to gather public feedback and help the SEC “create a clear, sensible, and fair path forward for the crypto industry,” according to an official release from the Commission.

By fLEXI tEAM