Congress needs a process drive for cryptocurrency theft months after the Justice Division disbanded NCET.
The proposal, launched by Reps. Lance Gooden and Josh Gottheimer, would create a Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Activity Power contained in the Justice Division and place it beneath the lawyer basic or a designee, based on the invoice textual content and a June 11 announcement from Gooden’s workplace.
That makes the invoice greater than one other crime-and-crypto submitting. It lands in the course of Washington’s try to maneuver digital asset markets away from enforcement-first uncertainty and towards clearer guidelines, whereas asking the identical authorities to rebuild coordination for the thefts, hacks, scams, and coercion instances that maintain hitting customers.
The stress traces again to the DOJ’s April 2025 memo, which ended what Deputy Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche referred to as “regulation by prosecution.” The memo disbanded the Nationwide Cryptocurrency Enforcement Crew, moved one DOJ unit away from cryptocurrency enforcement, and mentioned prosecutors ought to concentrate on particular person legal misuse of digital property relatively than treating the trade itself because the goal.
The brand new Home invoice preserves that market posture whereas drawing a line between market regulation and theft response: lighter policing of crypto markets paired with extra coordination when somebody loses funds.
What the invoice would construct
The Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Enforcement and Coordination Act would set up a process drive inside the DOJ and make it the first federal coordination physique for stopping, investigating, and prosecuting cryptocurrency theft and associated legal exercise.
The invoice textual content names senior representatives from the DOJ, the FBI, the Division of Homeland Safety (together with Homeland Safety Investigations), and the Treasury (together with FinCEN). It additionally lets the lawyer basic add different federal law-enforcement companies as applicable.
That wording issues as a result of some summaries of the proposal level to a wider group of companies; the seen invoice textual content names these companies and the lawyer basic’s catchall authority.
The duty drive’s duties are sensible relatively than regulatory. It might develop greatest practices for proof assortment, evaluation of seized digital proof, investigative methods, asset tracing, and sufferer engagement.
It might additionally present technical help, coaching, and steerage to state and native regulation enforcement companies and prosecutors, share info with federal, state, native, Tribal, and territorial companies, and coordinate with worldwide companions when instances cross borders.
A small clause close to the top is the coverage hinge. The invoice retains cryptocurrency, digital asset markets, monetary establishments, and monetary merchandise outdoors the duty drive’s regulatory attain.
It additionally leaves federal regulatory authority, the legal code, and personal rights of motion unchanged.
What the invoice doesOutside the invoice’s scopeCreates a DOJ process drive for cryptocurrency theft coordinationLeaves crypto market regulation untouchedBuilds federal, state, and native playbooks for proof, tracing, and victimsLeaves legal offenses unchangedRequires annual studies on exercise, developments, coordination, and really helpful fixesLeaves funding, staffing, and sufferer portal particulars open
That construction offers the invoice its political form. Lawmakers are asking a special query from the trade, mixer, pockets, and token-market fights: whether or not theft from crypto customers wants a standing federal hub after DOJ dissolved the workforce most intently related to specialised digital-asset crime work.
Why sufferer response is the strain level
The strongest argument for the invoice is the quantity and number of instances hitting victims and native authorities.
The FBI mentioned its 2025 Web Crime Report logged 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency and greater than $11 billion in reported losses. Whole reported cyber-enabled losses approached $21 billion.
These figures cease in need of exhibiting {that a} new process drive will recuperate extra money, however they clarify why Congress can separate the theft downside from the market-regulation debate.
A sufferer of a pockets drain, phishing scheme, trade exploit, or coercive assault hardly ever experiences the system as one clear federal lane. Native police might lack blockchain tracing experience. Prosecutors might need assistance preserving digital proof.
Federal companies might disagree over the place the case suits. Personal-sector companies often is the solely events in a position to rapidly freeze, hint, or flag funds. In cross-border instances, the timeline for tracing property can transfer quicker than bizarre referral channels.
Latest CryptoSlate protection illustrates completely different strain factors behind that coordination downside. The combat over the CLARITY Act has already pulled law-enforcement teams into market-structure negotiations as a result of safe-harbor language can have an effect on how prosecutors deal with builders, infrastructure suppliers, and intermediaries.
DeFi exploit protection has proven how a single flaw in shared code can have an effect on a number of chains directly, turning a technical bug right into a response downside throughout networks.
Bodily assault protection reveals the offline aspect of the identical menace, the place coercion in opposition to holders can flip pockets safety right into a street-crime problem.
That’s the a part of the story the task-force invoice tries to seize. Crypto crime now spans code exploits, scams, state-linked hacking, and offline coercion.
A basic assertion that DOJ stays in a position to prosecute crimes leaves unanswered whether or not a sheriff’s workplace, a sufferer, a federal agent, and a prosecutor can transfer rapidly by way of the identical case.
That blend offers the proposed coaching, proof steerage, and outreach provisions their sensible weight. A theft report might start with a neighborhood officer, turn into a blockchain-tracing downside, after which flip right into a sanctions, cyber, or cross-border query earlier than funds transfer once more.
The invoice’s premise is that these handoffs want construction earlier than the following sufferer reveals up.
The invoice’s check is capability
The proposal nonetheless leaves a big query unanswered: whether or not coordination can turn into capability.
The invoice would require annual studies to Congress on the duty drive’s actions, rising threats, coordination with state and native companies, and really helpful legislative or administrative fixes. It might additionally require outreach to state and native regulation enforcement, although participation by state, native, Tribal, and territorial governments could be voluntary.
These provisions might matter in the event that they produce an actual playbook, dependable factors of contact, and quicker escalation for victims. They may additionally expose gaps Congress has but to fund, together with the variety of brokers, analysts, prosecutors, forensic specialists, and victim-support employees wanted to make the duty drive greater than a listing.
The invoice leaves appropriations unspecified. It leaves sufferer consumption, response deadlines, and work-sharing guidelines open. It creates a task-force mannequin, whereas NCET operated as a devoted DOJ enforcement workforce earlier than the April 2025 shift.
That restraint is politically helpful as a result of it retains the invoice away from the broader crypto market combat. It’s also the core weak point.
A process drive can standardize proof dealing with, coaching, and referrals, however provided that companies dedicate folks, knowledge entry, and authority to the job.
The coverage whiplash is actual although the invoice textual content itself follows a coherent line. Washington may be friendlier to market entry and nonetheless determine that stolen crypto wants a devoted federal response.
The open query is whether or not Congress needs that response to be a specialised functionality with sources behind it, or one other formal label over an issue victims already expertise as fragmented.
