The U.S. Department of Justice has terminated its "sue instead of regulate" strategy and disbanded its Crypto Assets enforcement team.

Wu learned that the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memorandum on April 7, 2025, announcing the end of the digital asset enforcement strategy of “prosecuting instead of regulation” and disbanding the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which was established by the Biden administration in 2021. In the future, the DOJ will no longer conduct criminal investigations into platforms such as cryptocurrency exchanges, coin mixing services (such as Tornado Cash), and offline wallets for user behavior or unintentional violations, nor will it pursue developers legally responsible for their code being used by others to commit crimes, except in cases of serious crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, hacking, money laundering, or human smuggling. In cases involving securities or commodity trading regulations, charges may not be brought without clear subjective intent. The Department of Justice will also participate in the President’s Digital Asset Market Task Force to promote relevant regulatory and legislative adjustments.