The US Department of Justice intends to expand its efforts to investigate cryptocurrency-related crimes after merging a task force with a cybercrime unit.
The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), which was created in 2021, will be merged with the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS), Assistant Attorney General Nicole Argentieri has announced.
According to her:
"It’s now time to bring NCET to the next level. NCET has been an enormously successful startup. Merging it into CCIPS will give it the resources and runway to accomplish even more."
The merger will double the number of prosecutors available to work on digital asset crime. She has added:
"It’s become obvious to everyone in the cybercrime field that cryptocurrency work and cyber prosecutions are intertwined, and will become even more so in the future."
Another consequence of the merger will be to raise the status of NCET investigations.