Bipartisan US lawmakers have introduced legislation to create a federal interagency body dedicated to investigating fraud and hacking in the cryptocurrency space.
The proposed force would be led by the Attorney General and staffed by staff from the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Treasury. The goal of this group is to provide a way to report losses for victims who currently do not have a clear path to do so.
How bad are the US crypto losses?
Official government data confirms that Americans lost more than $11 billion to cryptocurrency fraud in 2025 alone. The FBI’s 2025 Cybercrime Report shows there were 181,565 complaints related to cryptocurrencies, with total losses exceeding $11.3 billion. This represents a 21% jump in the volume of complaints compared to the previous year.
Investment fraud was the largest contributor to the total amount, accounting for $7.2 billion of those losses.
Report from blockchain analytics company TRM Labs found Wallets linked to illegal activity received $158 billion in cryptocurrencies during 2025, a sharp increase from $64.5 billion in 2024.
these losses They were largely driven by sanctions evasion and nation-state actors. However, it is worth noting that illicit activity as a share of all cryptocurrency activity decreased slightly to 1.2% in 2025.
the The FBI reported thisMore than any age group, people over 60 filed 44,555 complaints and lost $4.43 billion to cryptocurrency scams. In the United States, the bureau’s 2025 Cybercrime Report recorded 181,565 complaints related to cryptocurrencies, with total losses exceeding $11 billion, representing a 21% jump in the volume of complaints from the previous year.
The FBI has launched initiatives like Operation Level Up to identify and notify victims when a scam is occurring, and this has helped save an estimated more than $500 million since its inception in 2024. In 2025 alone, the operation saved $225.8 million. 3,780 victims were also recorded that year.
What will the new task force do?
The bill, called the Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Enforcement and Coordination Act, was introduced by Republican Rep. Lance Gooden and Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer as a way to give victims, who currently have no single place to turn for help, a place to file reports.
Rep. Lance Gooden is a Republican from Texas and a member of the House Judiciary Committee, while Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, is a member of the House Financial Services Committee.
Rep. Gooden said in a statement that Americans lack a coordinated strategy to stop cryptocurrency criminals who are stealing millions from them.
The task force will be based at the Department of Justice and will include the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Treasury. Its mission is to coordinate investigations, create a standard guide for local police on dealing with cryptocurrency theft, and provide better support to victims.
The Trump administration disbanded the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) in 2025. Officials argued at the time that the previous administration used the team to regulate cryptocurrencies through lawsuits rather than focusing on catching criminals, and now the new bill will fill that gap, albeit with a different approach.
Federal enforcement of cryptocurrency-related crimes is currently divided across multiple agencies and has overlapping but fragmented rules that have produced inconsistent responses, leaving investigators and victims to navigate an inconsistent framework.
The Digital Chamber, a cryptocurrency policy organization, has supported the idea, saying law enforcement needs better tools and training. Dennis Porter of the Satoshi Action Fund said the bill would give “victims, investigators and local law enforcement the unified federal response they have been missing.”
The bill still needs to pass through committees or be attached to a larger legislative package to become law.
Previous federal initiatives similar to this have either been disbanded or are operating with narrower mandates. For example, the Department of Justice’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which was created under the Biden administration, was shut down after President Donald Trump took office.
Officials in the Trump administration now argue that the unit was effectively regulating cryptocurrencies through its own enforcement procedures.
The Joint Ransomware Task Force, created in 2021, coordinates agency responses to ransomware attacks, many of which require payment in cryptocurrency.
Separately, the Treasury Department launched a fraud center strike force last year focused on offshore fraud. This group, led by the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, seized more than $700 million in cryptocurrencies linked to scams linked to Chinese organized crime networks operating through intermediaries in Southeast Asia.
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