Todd Blanche Named Acting Attorney General Amid Ethics Controversy Over Crypto Holdings

President Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi and appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to lead the U.S. Department of Justice. The move places Blanche, who previously served as Trump's personal defense attorney during his New York criminal trial before the 2024 presidential election, at the helm of one of the country's most powerful law enforcement agencies.

During his tenure as deputy attorney general, Blanche made notable moves within federal crypto enforcement policy. He ordered the dissolution of the DOJ's National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, a unit established in 2022 under the Biden administration, and issued a four-page directive instructing federal prosecutors to stop pursuing regulatory violation cases involving the cryptocurrency industry. That memo had direct consequences in the Southern District of New York, where prosecutors referenced it in the case against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, ultimately dropping one of the charges against him. Storm was later convicted on a separate charge and is scheduled for a retrial on two additional counts later this year.

Blanche's appointment now faces scrutiny following an ethics disclosure dated July 10, 2025, which revealed he had transferred a substantial portfolio of digital assets to his children and grandchild. The transferred holdings included Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano, and Ethereum, with previously disclosed assets also including Polygon, Polkadot, and Quant, along with shares in Coinbase. Investigative outlet ProPublica reported that Blanche still held between $159,000 and $485,000 worth of these crypto assets at the time he signed the enforcement memo, which reportedly conflicted with federal ethics rules and a prior commitment he made to divest from crypto holdings before engaging in matters related to the industry.

The development raises serious questions about potential conflicts of interest at the highest levels of federal law enforcement during a pivotal period for cryptocurrency regulation in the United States.