New York Attorney General Leticia James (d) is Thursday letter It urges Congressional leaders to crack down on crypto regulations days after the Department of Justice (DOJ) dissolved its national cryptocurrency enforcement team.
James argued that without safeguards, digital assets could undermine control of the US dollar. He claimed that when individuals fund criminal operations anonymously, they would fund hostile regimes and fund price manipulation in equipped markets by subject investors.
“Many of the cryptocurrency industry has been attractive for exchange with illegal finances by design, with opaque ownership structures and lack of centralized control, and has become an attractive medium for exchange with illicit finances by hostile state actors such as North Korea, China, Russia, Venezuela and Iran, as well as hostile state actors such as Hamas and Iran. [ISIS]and a global cartel of drugs and crime,” James wrote.
“North Korea stole over $6 billion in code to fund its nuclear program, becoming the third largest holder of Bitcoin,” said the New York Attorney General, who signed several lawsuits against the Trump administration.
New York officials highlighted Bitcoin as a constant competition for the US dollar in a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader John Tune (Rs.D.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakem Jeffrey (Dn.y.).
“Cryptocurrency fraud had a major impact on New York,” James wrote. “Around 26,000 New Yorkers have accumulated and lost $440 million to the Celsius trading platform.”
“Its founder and CEO committed a crime against two federal criminal charges in December 2024 and continues to face lawsuits from my office over the harm he caused,” she added.
DOJ officials said Monday that they would prioritize the management of cryptocurrency enforcement, but would prioritize prosecution of people who sacrificed digital asset investors or those who use digital assets for criminal offences such as terrorism, drugs, trafficking, organized crime, hacking and cartels and gang funding.
Meanwhile, since returning to the White House, President Trump has created a new course for crypto investors and invited many top traders to speak at the first White House Summit. He also created Bitcoin's first government sanctuary along with “digital asset reserves.”
“My administration is also working to end the federal bureaucratic war on codes that had been going on quite wildly during Biden until the election occurred,” the president said. During his remarks At the Digital Asset Summit while promoting deregulation.
James, who advocated more regulations, said some concerns could be alleviated through the support of stable coins on the rail line.
“The United States requires the support of stable coins one-to-one to the US dollar or the Treasury, and should be issued by companies with an American presence, regulated under US law and subject to federal and/or state oversight,” she wrote to Congressional leaders.
“These dollars and Treasury should be deposited in banks and institutions under US supervision. The fact that the so-called stubcoins are not supported one-to-one by the US dollar creates market disruption for investors who don't know that there is no actual dollar behind the token,” she proposed.
