The United States Ministry of Justice dissolves a unit which has devoted itself to investigating fraud linked to cryptocurrency while the presidential administration of Donald Trump takes over the surveillance of the digital asset sector.
In a four-page memo sent to employees of the Ministry of Justice on Monday evening, the deputy prosecutor Todd Blanche said that his national cryptocurrency law application (NCET) “will be dissolved immediately”.
THE note De Blanche, who previously represented the president during the 2024 criminal trial which led to Trump’s conviction on 34 accusations of crime of falsification of commercial files, said that “the digital asset industry is essential to the country’s economic and innovation”.
“The Ministry of Justice is not a regulator of digital assets,” said Blanche. He then criticized the presidential predecessor of Trump, Joe Biden, saying: “However, the previous administration used the Ministry of Justice to continue an imprudent regulatory strategy by prosecution.”
The Ministry of Justice will no longer pursue disputes or implementation measures which have the effect of superimposing regulatory executives on digital assets while the real regulators of President Trump do this work outside the framework of puminal criminal justice, “wrote Blanche.
On the contrary, said Blanche, “surveys and prosecution of the department involving digital assets are focused on prosecution by people who victimize digital asset investors or those who use digital assets in pursuing criminal offenses such as terrorism, narcotics and human trafficking, organized crime, hacking and financing of cartridges and cartridges and cartridges gangs ”.
The decision to dissolve NCET, wrote Blanche, has been part of the efforts of the Ministry of Justice to comply with a executive decree Signed by Trump at the start of his second presidency in January.
The decree calls on the government to protect and promote “the capacity of individual citizens and entities of the private sector to access and use for legal purposes opens up public blockchain networks without persecution”, among other objectives.
Officials of the Ministry of Justice, wrote Blanche: “will no longer target the exchange of virtual currencies, mixing and tumbling services and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or the involuntary violations of the regulations”, among other instructions.
The current surveys which are “incoherent” with this new policy “should be closed,” added Blanche.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comments from the Guardian on Tuesday.
According to the Ministry of Justice websiteNcet was established Under Biden to “take up the challenge posed by the criminal use of cryptocurrencies and digital assets”.
Composed of lawyers with an expertise in cryptocurrency, cybercrime and money laundering, the team was responsible for spearhead several high -level crypto case.
The decision to dissolve unity comes when Trump expressed the desire to make the United States the “cryptographic capital of the planet”. And he pleaded for Apply regulations on the digital asset industry While also adopting pro-Crypto policies.
During his campaign for the White House last year, Trump courted cryptographic companies to contribute to his campaign and support his candidacy.
Last fall, it was announced that Trump and his sons were helping to launch a new cryptographic company called World Liberty Financial. And before its inauguration, Trump spear A crypto token.
According to ReutersThe Trump family has a complaint on 75% of net revenues of token sales by World Liberty Financial.
In March, Trump signed an executive decree creating an cryptocurrency strategic reserve for the United States. And this same week, he welcomed leaders of the cryptographic industry at the White House for a round discussion.
