The U.S. Congress plans to rebuild the Crypto Crime Task Force to fill the enforcement gap left after the DOJ disbanded the NCET.

Deep Tide TechFlow News, June 16, according to CryptoSlate, U.S. Representatives Lance Gooden and Josh Gottheimer jointly introduced the “Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Enforcement and Coordination Act.” The bill proposes establishing a Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Special Task Force within the Department of Justice, with members drawn from agencies including the DOJ, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Treasury Department (including FinCEN). The task force will serve as the core coordinating body at the federal level, responsible for the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of cryptocurrency theft cases, and for providing training and technical guidance to local law enforcement agencies on evidence collection, asset tracing, and victim support.

The backdrop to this move is that, in April 2025, the DOJ disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), citing “prosecution instead of regulation.” FBI data shows that in 2025 there were 181,000 cryptocurrency-related complaints, with losses exceeding $11 billion. Notably, the bill explicitly excludes cryptocurrency market regulation from the task force’s scope of authority, and existing criminal statutes remain unchanged. However, key details such as funding sources, staffing levels, and victim response mechanisms have not been made clear, leading to public doubts about its practical enforcement capabilities.