US Congress Targets Crypto Theft With New DOJ Task Force

$11.4 billion. That’s how much Americans reported losing to crypto-related crime in 2025 alone. And yet, for most of that year, the United States government had no dedicated team to investigate it.

That gap might be about to close. On 11 June 2026, two US House members introduced the Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Enforcement and Coordination Act — a bipartisan bill designed to build a government-wide task force that actually coordinates how America chases crypto criminals. If it passes, it could reshape how stolen digital assets get traced, recovered, and prosecuted — not just in the US, but globally.

Here’s what the bill says, why it matters, and what UK crypto holders should take from it.

What the Bill Actually Says

The proposed law would create something called the Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Task Force. It would be housed inside the Department of Justice, chaired by the US Attorney General, and staffed with senior representatives from the DOJ itself, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Treasury Department.

That might sound like bureaucratic reshuffling. It isn’t. Right now, crypto crime investigations are scattered across dozens of agencies with no common playbook. A hack gets reported to the FBI. The money moves to an exchange overseas. Treasury gets involved. DHS has separate jurisdiction. Nobody’s really in charge of the whole picture. This bill tries to fix that.

Why the DOJ’s Dedicated Crypto Team Was Disbanded

When I looked into the background on this, the timing made me do a double-take. The bill arrives almost exactly one year after the DOJ quietly shut down its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team — the NCET — as part of the Trump administration’s broader decision to pull back on crypto enforcement and take a more industry-friendly stance.

The NCET had been the DOJ’s specialist unit for complex crypto cases. It handled exchange hacks, DeFi (decentralised finance — automated financial systems that run on blockchain) exploits, and high-value scams. When it was disbanded, that institutional knowledge effectively walked out the door.

The result? Crypto criminals had roughly twelve months with no dedicated federal team hunting them. The FBI data tells you how that went.

Who Introduced It — and Why Bipartisan Support Matters

The bill was co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden from Texas and Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey. That cross-party support is significant. Most crypto legislation in the US has been slowed by partisan disagreements — Democrats wanting more consumer protection, Republicans wanting less regulation on the industry.

This bill sidesteps that argument entirely. It doesn’t regulate crypto markets. It doesn’t restrict what exchanges can do. It doesn’t classify any token as a security. Both sides of the aisle can back it because it’s framed purely as a crime-fighting measure — and nobody’s in favour of people stealing billions.

The Scale of the Problem: $11.4 Billion Lost in 2025

The numbers that prompted this bill are staggering. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints in 2025. Total reported losses: $11.4 billion. That’s not theoretical exposure — that’s money people actually lost.

Globally, crypto fraud and theft topped $17 billion in 2025, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. AI-enabled scams were the fastest-growing category — 4.5 times more profitable than traditional fraud methods. Pig butchering scams (where criminals build fake online relationships before convincing victims to invest in fraudulent platforms) are now running at industrial scale.

What the Task Force Would Actually Do

The bill sets out four core functions for the new task force.

First, it would set best practices for collecting and preserving digital evidence. Crypto investigations fail constantly because investigators don’t know how to properly seize wallet keys or preserve transaction records in a legally admissible way. Unglamorous, but critical.

Second, it would improve blockchain tracing and asset recovery. When stolen crypto moves through mixers (tools that obscure transaction trails), across multiple chains, and into foreign exchanges, recovering it takes specialist skills most local police departments simply don’t have.

Third — worth highlighting — it would provide training to state and local agencies. Most crypto theft victims report to their local police first. And most local police forces have no idea what to do. The task force would build a playbook and share it nationally.

Fourth, it would coordinate with foreign law enforcement when stolen funds cross borders. Which they almost always do.

What the Bill Won’t Do (This Matters)

Congress was unusually explicit about this. The legislation specifically states that it would not authorise new regulation of cryptocurrency markets, would not expand the authority of any federal agency, and would not create new criminal offences.

That’s deliberate. The Trump administration doesn’t want to be seen reversing its light-touch crypto stance. So this bill is pro-enforcement without being pro-regulation. It tells the industry: we’re going to catch people who steal your coins, but we’re not going to add new rules about how you run your exchange.

UK investors sometimes assume US regulatory moves automatically ripple over here. They don’t — not directly. But stronger US enforcement tends to push foreign exchanges into better compliance, which reduces the number of safe havens for stolen British crypto.

The UK Picture: FCA Gets Tough as Global Enforcement Rises

UK investors keep asking about crypto crime protection because the domestic picture has been patchy. The FCA has been ramping up. In April 2026, the regulator conducted raids on eight companies — its first-ever large-scale crypto enforcement crackdown. A genuine signal the FCA isn’t just sending warning letters any more.

The UK Fraud Strategy 2026–2029, published in March 2026, explicitly labels crypto and digital assets a “growing risk” area requiring targeted resources. Fraud now accounts for an estimated 45% of all crime reported in the UK. AI-enabled fraud is making things significantly worse.

The full FCA crypto authorisation regime — where exchanges and crypto businesses must be regulated — is expected in October 2027. Until then, enforcement exists but the legal framework is still being built.

One more number: globally, impersonation scams in crypto saw 1,400% year-on-year growth in 2025. That’s not a rounding error. That’s an epidemic.

What This Means for UK Crypto Investors

This is a bill, not a law. It still needs to pass committee, clear the full House, go through the Senate, and be signed. US legislation moves slowly — and crypto legislation moves even slower.

That said, the direction of travel is clear. Both the US and UK are moving toward better coordinated enforcement of crypto crime. Better blockchain tracing, better international cooperation, and better-trained investigators means major hacks and scams become harder to execute without consequences.

For UK holders, practical takeaways are shorter-term. Use exchanges that are FCA-registered or compliant with FinCEN (US) or MiCA (EU). Keep the bulk of your holdings in self-custody wallets — not on exchange. Report any suspected fraud to Action Fraud and the FCA immediately. The faster a report lands, the better the chance of any blockchain trace being useful.

The US may be rebuilding its crypto crime apparatus. But in the meantime, your best protection is still common sense and cold storage.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments involve significant risk. Always do your own research.