DOJ Leadership Sets a New Enforcement Position on Bitcoin Developers
At Bitcoin 2026, Justice Department leadership said developers who are not knowingly helping users commit crimes should not be prosecuted merely for building software, directly addressing fears created by cases against noncustodial cryptocurrency developers.
On April 27, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used an appearance at Bitcoin 2026 to describe a changed Justice Department approach toward software developers. In discussion of prosecutions such as the Samourai Wallet case, Blanche said developers who are not knowingly assisting criminal conduct should not face prosecution simply because criminals can use their software.
The statement mattered to Bitcoin because noncustodial wallets, privacy tools, and open-source financial software can be written and distributed without developers taking possession of user funds. Earlier prosecutions had created concern that writing or operating such software could itself expose developers to money-transmission or conspiracy liability even when the system was designed to leave custody with users.
The April statement was not a statute, judicial precedent, or binding safe harbor, and it should not be written as one. Its historical significance was executive-enforcement policy: senior federal law-enforcement leadership publicly narrowing the circumstances in which software development alone would be treated as criminal conduct, changing the risk environment perceived by Bitcoin developers.