Congress needs a activity power 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 below the legal professional basic or a designee, in keeping with 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 circumstances that maintain hitting customers.
The stress traces again to the DOJ’s April 2025 memo, which ended what Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche known as “regulation by prosecution.” The memo disbanded the Nationwide Cryptocurrency Enforcement Workforce, moved one DOJ unit away from cryptocurrency enforcement, and stated prosecutors ought to concentrate on particular person legal misuse of digital property reasonably 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 activity power throughout 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 legal professional basic add different federal law-enforcement businesses as applicable.
That wording issues as a result of some summaries of the proposal level to a wider group of businesses; the seen invoice textual content names these businesses and the legal professional basic’s catchall authority.
The duty power’s duties are sensible reasonably than regulatory. It might develop greatest practices for proof assortment, evaluation of seized digital proof, investigative strategies, asset tracing, and sufferer engagement.
It might additionally present technical help, coaching, and steering to state and native legislation enforcement businesses and prosecutors, share data with federal, state, native, Tribal, and territorial businesses, and coordinate with worldwide companions when circumstances 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 power’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 activity power for cryptocurrency theft coordinationLeaves crypto market regulation untouchedBuilds federal, state, and native playbooks for proof, tracing, and victimsLeaves legal offenses unchangedRequires annual reviews on exercise, developments, coordination, and beneficial 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 carefully 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 circumstances hitting victims and native authorities.
The FBI stated 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 wanting displaying {that a} new activity power will get better 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 businesses might disagree over the place the case suits. Non-public-sector companies often is the solely events in a position to shortly freeze, hint, or flag funds. In cross-border circumstances, 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 battle 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 without delay, turning a technical bug right into a response downside throughout networks.
Bodily assault protection exhibits the offline aspect of the identical risk, the place coercion in opposition to holders can flip pockets safety right into a street-crime concern.
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 shortly via the identical case.
That blend offers the proposed coaching, proof steering, and outreach provisions their sensible weight. A theft report might start with an area 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 exhibits up.
The invoice’s take a look at is capability
The proposal nonetheless leaves a big query unanswered: whether or not coordination can turn into capability.
The invoice would require annual reviews to Congress on the duty power’s actions, rising threats, coordination with state and native businesses, and beneficial legislative or administrative fixes. It might additionally require outreach to state and native legislation 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 workers wanted to make the duty power 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 battle. It is usually the core weak point.
A activity power can standardize proof dealing with, coaching, and referrals, however provided that businesses dedicate folks, information entry, and authority to the job.
The coverage whiplash is actual despite the fact that the invoice textual content itself follows a coherent line. Washington may be friendlier to market entry and nonetheless resolve 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 assets behind it, or one other formal label over an issue victims already expertise as fragmented.
