Key Takeaways
- The U.S. Department of Justice has dismantled its crypto task force effective immediately.
- The deputy attorney general said the DOJ is not a designated digital assets regulator.
- The DOJ has brought several high-profile crypto lawsuits over the past five years.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has shut down its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), a task force created to oversee crypto-related prosecutions.
The decision, outlined in a four-page memo issued Monday evening , follows a broader policy shift prompted by former President Donald Trump’s January executive order that called for greater regulatory clarity in the digital assets sector.
Justice Department Dismantles Crypto Task Force
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who signed the memo, criticized the prior administration, asserting that the DOJ was misused as a de facto crypto regulator.
“The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator,” Blanche wrote. “However, the prior administration used the Justice Department to pursue a reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution.”
Formed in 2021 under President Joe Biden, the NCET was a specialized unit composed of prosecutors from the DOJ’s money laundering and cybercrime divisions and various U.S. Attorneys’ Offices.
Its mission was to combat illicit activity in crypto markets, with a strong emphasis on anti-money laundering enforcement.
The internal memo directed department leadership to prioritize targeting individual wrongdoers rather than firms developing blockchain infrastructure or offering crypto services.
Though now dissolved, the NCET left its mark through a string of high-profile cases involving major industry players like Binance, Tornado Cash, and KuCoin.
Major DOJ Crypto Enforcement Actions
Tornado Cash
In 2023, the DOJ charged Roman Storm and Roman Semenov, the developers behind the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, with helping launder more than $1 billion in criminal proceeds, including funds tied to North Korean hackers.
The case sparked backlash across the crypto community, which argued the developers were being punished for writing open-source code.
Ultimately, a court overturned the case and removed Tornado Cash from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.
Binance
Also, in 2023, the NCET led what became the DOJ’s most significant crypto prosecution to date: a sweeping case against Binance and its founder and CEO, Changpeng Zhao.
The exchange was accused of willfully violating anti-money laundering laws.
Binance settled the case by agreeing to pay $4 billion in penalties. Zhao pleaded guilty and received a four-month prison sentence and a $50 million criminal fine.
BitMEX
Between 2021 and 2022, the DOJ went after derivatives exchange BitMEX for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
Prosecutors charged four of the platform’s executives with failing to implement know-your-customer protocols.
All four pleaded guilty. Co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed received probation sentences ranging from 18 to 30 months.
Hayes also served six months under home detention. Gregory Dwyer, the fourth executive, was fined $150,000 and placed on probation for one year.
KuCoin
In March 2024, KuCoin was charged with operating as an unlicensed money-transmitting business and violating the Bank Secrecy Act by enabling illicit transactions.
Authorities said the exchange had more than 1.5 million U.S.-based users and generated approximately $184.5 million in fees while failing to register with regulators.
KuCoin agreed to pay $300 million to settle the charges in January 2025.
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