Congress, in a moment of collective clarity-or possibly caffeine-induced delirium-has proposed a brand‑new Justice Department task force to tackle cryptocurrency theft. This comes after the FBI received 181,565 crypto‑related complaints in 2025, along with more than $11 billion in losses, which is roughly the GDP of a small but very determined island nation.
collecting and analyzing digital evidence, tracing stolen assets, improving investigative techniques, and helping victims of crypto‑related crimes. In other words, they’ll be doing all the things your tech‑savvy cousin claims he can do but absolutely cannot.
Support for state and local authorities is also central to the proposal. Technical guidance, training programs, and information‑sharing efforts would be extended to law enforcement agencies and prosecutors. Coordination with international partners would help address cases involving cross‑border fund movements, because thieves, like pigeons, do not respect national boundaries.
Proposal follows NCET shutdown
The legislation appears a little over a year after the Justice Department dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. In an April memo first reported by Fortune, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche ordered the unit’s immediate closure and declared an end to what he called “regulation by prosecution” of the crypto sector-an approach that had all the charm of a malfunctioning vending machine.
At the time, the Justice Department said prosecutors should devote fewer resources to cases involving exchanges, mixing services, and wallet providers. Instead, they would focus on individuals who use digital assets to commit crimes or harm investors-essentially, the digital equivalent of chasing the person who stole your sandwich rather than the company that made the lunchbox.
Created during the Biden administration, NCET brought together prosecutors from the DOJ’s money laundering and cybercrime divisions and coordinated several major cryptocurrency investigations. Its caseload included the prosecution of crypto mixer Tornado Cash and co‑founder Roman Storm, who faces charges related to money laundering, sanctions violations, and operating an unlicensed money‑transmitting business. The case sparked heated debate in the crypto world, where many argued that software developers were being blamed for how people used their code-much like blaming a spoon for ice cream theft.
NCET also led investigations into North Korean laundering networks tied to cryptocurrency theft and prosecuted Avraham Eisenberg over the $114 million Mango Markets exploit, which remains one of the few crimes named after a fruit.
Data from the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report provides part of the rationale behind the new proposal. Alongside the 181,565 crypto‑related complaints and more than $11 billion in reported losses, the bureau recorded nearly $21 billion in total cyber‑enabled losses-an amount large enough to make even the most stoic accountant weep softly into a spreadsheet.
Lawmakers behind the bill argue that victims of wallet thefts, phishing attacks, exchange exploits, and other crypto crimes often encounter fragmented responses across local, federal, and international agencies. The proposed coordination hub aims to consolidate expertise and improve cooperation without expanding federal oversight of cryptocurrency markets, which would be about as popular as a surprise tax audit.
The bill explicitly excludes cryptocurrency markets, digital assets, financial products, and financial institutions from the task force’s regulatory authority. Existing federal regulatory powers, criminal statutes, and private rights of action would remain unchanged-because if there’s one thing Congress loves, it’s not changing things.
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2026-06-16 10:14