House bill would create DOJ crypto theft task force after NCET disbanded

A House proposal would set up a Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Task Force inside the Justice Department to coordinate investigations and prosecutions tied to stolen digital assets, months after the DOJ dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. Introduced by Reps. Lance Gooden and Josh Gottheimer, the bill would place the task force under the attorney general or a designee and make it the main federal hub for preventing, investigating and prosecuting cryptocurrency theft and related crime. The measure is designed to separate theft response from the broader fight over crypto market oversight. Its text would bring together senior representatives from the DOJ, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, including Homeland Security Investigations, and the Treasury, including FinCEN (Treasury's financial crimes unit), while allowing the attorney general to add other federal law-enforcement agencies. Its duties would focus on evidence collection, seized digital evidence analysis, investigative techniques, asset tracing and victim engagement, alongside training and technical support for state and local authorities and coordination with international partners. The bill explicitly keeps cryptocurrency, digital asset markets, financial institutions and financial products outside the task force's regulatory reach, while leaving federal regulatory authority, criminal offenses and private rights of action unchanged. It would also require annual reports to Congress on activity, threat trends, coordination and recommended legislative or administrative changes. The push comes after the DOJ's April 2025 memo ended what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called “regulation by prosecution,” disbanded NCET and shifted prosecutors toward individual criminal misuse of digital assets rather than treating the industry itself as the target. Supporters of the new bill argue that theft, hacks, scams and coercion cases still need a standing federal coordination point even as Washington moves toward a less enforcement-driven approach to the crypto market. The pressure behind the proposal is the scale and complexity of crypto-related crime. The FBI said its 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency and more than $11 billion in reported losses, while total reported cyber-enabled losses neared $21 billion. Whether the task force improves recoveries remains unclear, but the bill reflects a view that fragmented referrals, limited blockchain-tracing expertise and cross-border cases can overwhelm victims and local agencies unless the response is more structured.