Following the removal of Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump has announced that Todd Blanche will take the reins as the interim head of the US Department of Justice. Notably, Blanche previously served as Trump's attorney in a New York criminal case prior to Trump's 2024 reelection.
After Trump's return to office, Blanche was appointed as deputy attorney general. In this role, he made significant moves, including dismantling the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team established under the Biden administration in 2022. Furthermore, Blanche issued a directive to prosecutors, instructing them not to pursue cases involving regulatory breaches within the cryptocurrency sector.
This directive was referenced in a case involving Roman Storm, the developer of Tornado Cash, which ultimately led to the dismissal of a charge against him. According to a government ethics disclosure filed by Blanche in July 2025, he transferred his cryptocurrency holdings, including Bitcoin, Solana, ADA, and Ethereum, to his children and a grandchild.
The disclosure also noted his holdings in Polygon, DOT, Quant, and Coinbase stock. However, as reported by ProPublica, Blanche still held these assets, valued between $159,000 and $485,000, when he signed the enforcement memo, which raises concerns about potential ethics violations and his pledge to divest from crypto-related matters.