DOJ to announce ‘significant’ crypto enforcements alongside CFTC, Treasury

It’s unclear what “actions” the CFTC, DOJ and Treasury will announce Tuesday afternoon

article-image

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen | Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The Department of Justice will announce “significant cryptocurrency enforcement actions” during an upcoming press conference Tuesday afternoon. 

Alongside Attorney General Merrick Garland, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam are all expected to speak. 

The conference will “announce separate but related cryptocurrency enforcement actions.”

It’s unclear what kind of enforcement action will be announced, though — as reported by Blockworks on Monday — the Justice Department and Binance have been working toward a multibillion-dollar settlement that would prevent an FTX-like crash. 

The DOJ has investigated Binance for a few years, and people familiar claim that the settlement could be between $4 billion to $5 billion. It would allow Binance to continue operating and give law enforcement access to its database. 

However, the press conference may not be related to Binance, as the DOJ announced this morning that it also seized $9 million of Tether from a scam operation exploiting victims through “romance scams and cryptocurrency confidence scams.”

Tether, on Monday, said it froze $225 million in USDT after it collaborated with a DOJ investigation that also included the US Secret Service and OKX.

The funds, Tether claimed, were linked to a Southeast Asia-based human trafficking ring “responsible for a global ‘pig-butchering’ romance scam.”

The DOJ also has not been the only government entity active in targeting cryptocurrency companies this week. Late Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a suit against crypto exchange Kraken’s parent companies. 

No high-ranking official from the SEC will be present at Tuesday’s press conference.

The suit alleges that Kraken commingled customer funds and failed to register as an exchange.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

A 40% allocation to crypto today is safer than a 1% allocation was in 2021, Ric Edelman argues

article-image

The wallet doesn’t have enough memory for more apps and features but should still function, the company says

article-image

The proof-of-work L1 is betting on parallel-chain scaling, low fees, and a $50 million grant program to lure Solidity developers and tokenized RWA issuers

article-image

Sponsored

Injective is not waiting for the future of finance. It is bringing it directly to us, today.

article-image

Bitcoin has been bullish for nearly 1,000 days

article-image

Robinhood announced that it’s building an L2 and also plans to launch staking for US users