Todd Blanche is now acting head of the Department of Justice, and the crypto industry is watching this development for a specific reason that goes beyond his professional resume.
President Trump announced Thursday that Blanche, who served as deputy attorney general, would replace Pam Bondi as attorney general. The headline here: The man who wrote the Justice Department’s crypto enforcement memo now controls the institution that enforces it.
Blanche signed the four-page directive in April 2025, which disbanded the Justice Department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and ordered prosecutors to stop pursuing cases of regulatory violations against the crypto industry. This document has already rewritten at least one active prosecution, and its author now runs the entire department.
Highlights:
- Who is he: Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal criminal attorney, was confirmed as deputy attorney general in March 2025 and is now acting attorney general following the firing of Pam Bondi.
- What did the memo do? The April 2025 White Memorandum disbanded the Crypto Enforcement Team and barred plaintiffs from pursuing regulatory violation cases against crypto companies.
- Ethical concerns: A ProPublica investigation found that Blanche owned between $159,000 and $485,000 in crypto assets – including BTC, ETH, SOL and ADA – when he signed the execution memorandum, which may be a violation of his commitment to divest from his investments.
- Scope of application: The impact of the warrant has already been tested in the Southern District of New York case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Sturm, where one count was dismissed after prosecutors cited the warrant.
- Impact on DeFi Regulation: With Blanche at the top, the enforcement position for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, coin mixing services, and unhosted wallets is unlikely to harden in the near term.
- What to watch out for: How long this change in enforcement lasts will depend on whether Blanche seeks a permanent appointment and how her interim term intersects with ongoing federal legislative debates, including the FIT21 and GENIUS Acts.
What the Crypto Enforcement Memorandum actually does – and why drafting it changes the calculus
The memo that Blanche signed last April did two things at once: eliminate the Justice Department’s specialized crypto prosecution unit, narrow the prosecutorial mandate to fraud and clearly criminal behavior, and move away from the Biden-era framework that treated regulatory failure as a criminal basis.
The National Anti-Cryptocurrency Team, established in 2022, served as the institutional infrastructure for this broader approach.
The implications of the document were immediate; In the Southern District of New York’s case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Sturm, prosecutors pointed to the Justice Department’s memo before dropping one count against Sturm, a direct application of the new enforcement philosophy to a decentralized finance (DeFi) regulatory case.
Storm was later convicted of a separate charge and faces retrial on two other charges, but the impact of the warrant on prosecutorial discretion is already known.
Blanche’s promotion to acting prosecutor does not change the text of the memo, but it removes any institutional doubt about her ability to survive the leadership transition; The man who established this policy now sets the Justice Department’s priorities at the highest levels.
White as Acting Prosecutor – What will change for the DeFi sector, mixing services and offshore platforms
The immediate result of the application process is continuity, not escalation. The Justice Department, under Blanche’s leadership, is unlikely to reopen the avenue of regulatory abuse closed by the memo. This is particularly important for DeFi protocols that operate under ambiguous legal status and for coin mixing services that were within the scope of the previous enforcement framework.
The moral concerns that Blanche brings to this position are less decisive; ProPublica reported that Blanche owned between $159,000 and $485,000 in crypto assets at the time he signed the execution memorandum, a potential violation of his divestment pledge.
His latest government ethics disclosure shows that he then transferred his holdings in Bitcoin, Solana, ADA, Ethereum, Polygon, DOT and Quant to his children and grandchildren. This timetable now constitutes a legal burden and no longer a mere footnote.
For platforms charged with state-specific compliance — such as local licensing pressures that arise as platforms expand into regulated U.S. markets — Blanch’s appointment signals that federal enforcement will remain limited even if state regulators act independently. This contrast between federal pushback and state regulatory activity constitutes the tension that defines this phase.
CBS News reported on expectations for a long-term interim term, citing the challenges of installing a permanent attorney general in the Senate. Trump praised Blanche on Truth Social, calling him a “talented and well-respected jurist,” and Blanche responded on X saying, “Thank you for the trust and opportunity to serve.” »
While FIT21 and broader crypto market structure legislation remain unresolved in the Senate, the durability of Blanche’s approach to enforcement depends largely on whether Congress will codify the regulatory boundaries drawn solely by the memo, and whether her ethical crisis will become an obstacle to her permanent confirmation before that happens.
The article Todd Blanche as Acting Justice Minister: What Does This Mean for the Future of Crypto? appeared first on Cryptonews Arabic.
