The U.S. Department of Justice revokes the cryptocurrency department, Trump further relaxes regulation on digital assets

PANews reported on April 8th, according to Fortune Magazine, that the U.S. Department of Justice notified its employees on Monday evening that it is dissolving a department specifically responsible for cryptocurrency-related investigations. In a four-page memo reviewed by Fortune Magazine, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced this decision, stating: "The Department of Justice is not a digital asset regulatory agency.

However, the previous administration used the Department of Justice to implement a strategy of reckless regulation through prosecution." Blanche is the second-ranking official in the Department of Justice and was also Trump's defense attorney during his 2024 criminal trial. He wrote that as part of the efforts made by the DOJ to comply with Trump's January executive order on digital assets, The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) will be "immediately" dissolved; this order aims to "establish regulatory clarity for this industry". As part of Monday's memo, Blanche instructed DOJ employees to focus on "prosecuting those who harm digital asset investors", rather than pursuing cases involving cryptocurrency exchanges like Tornado Cash mixers and offline wallets.