In short
- Todd Blanche was promoted to lead the Department of Justice this week following the firing of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
- As deputy attorney general, Blanche pushed for pro-crypto reforms, such as closing the DOJ’s crypto-dedicated division.
- But he also oversaw continued criticism of crypto developers.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump fired his attorney general, Pam Bondi — and promoted his deputy, Todd Blanche, to run the Justice Department. Trump said the promotion was temporary, but reports suggests that the President is waiting to see how Blanche, his former lawyer, will do in this new role.
Blanche’s promotions are extensive, including some crypto. The former federal prosecutor initiated a number of corporate reforms at the Department of Justice last year, and is a crypto entrepreneur.
But under the leadership of Bondi and Bondi, U.S. attorneys have continued to pursue cases against crypto software developers—a development that has left privacy and distribution advocates worried.
When Blanche joined the federal government last year, she to be revealed a large number of cryptocurrencies. The state attorney general said he has between $100,000 and $250,000 in cash. Bitcoinand between $50,000 and $100,000 in value Ethereum. He also said that he has many altcoins, including SolanaCardano, Ethereum Classic, Polygon, and Polkadot. All crypto tokens were traded through a Coinbase account.
Blanche said in the following manner reservation that he later transferred the crypto assets to his eldest children and grandson.
Just weeks after becoming the Justice Department’s second-in-command last year, Blanche disbanded a crypto-dedicated enforcement agency. He too to instruct Opponents of the regime have stopped crypto exchanges and mixed crypto services that rely on terrorists and hostile countries such as North Korea and Iran.
“Previous administrations have used the Ministry of Justice to pursue a sloppy judicial system, which was poorly designed and not executed,” Blanche said at the time.
Based on that, the DOJ chief he said The room of leaders of the crypto policy after a few months that the Trump administration will stop paying crypto software developers is another case related to the management of unauthorized funds.
But the great relief offered by crypto leaders at that commitment was short-lived. Last fall, the Trump DOJ sent out two Bitcoin secrets programs producers to prison for illegal use of money transfer machines.
When Trump’s DOJ took down another Ethereum developer for trying to create similar software last year, a Manhattan jury convicted the man, Roman Storm, of using an illegal money printing machine — but he died on two other charges. Last month, under the leadership of Blanche and Bondi, the government’s opposition moved try again The storm in the two cases.
Peter Van Valkenburgh, chief executive of crypto policy think tank Coin Center, recently he said Decrypt that the merger of the Trump DOJ appears to be inconsistent with pro-crypto claims and the continued prosecution of crypto developers will make the industry “very bad.”
It remains to be seen whether the DOJ’s crypto policies will change with Blanche’s move to the top of the department’s leadership. But the policies may not have been the same for the now-deposed Bondi. In December, in response to a question from DecryptPresident Trump has said he will “look into” amnesty for crypto developers who are being prosecuted by his Justice Department. No such pardons have ever been made.
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