U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday creating a task force that will focus in part on developing guidance for cryptocurrency fraud investigations.
The “Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud,” according to the executive order, casts a wide net in its focus on consumer fraud. Yet notable for the crypto industry is its mention of “digital currency fraud,” which is one of a number of areas in which the task force will “provide guidance for the investigation and prosecution of cases involving fraud.”
It’s not clear in what form the guidance will take, but the task force may ultimately produce some kind of report for the Trump administration on this front.
Yet it’s not surprising that the administration would move in this direction. Earlier this year, the U.S. government indicated that it was working toward a “comprehensive” strategy around cryptocurrencies, with a focus on market fraud. In February, the U.S. Department of Justice formed a cybersecurity task force that includes cryptocurrencies as part of its mandate.
“A lot of these schemes involve bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which do not flow through the traditional financial system,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at the time. “What we’re working on now with our cybercrime task force is a working on a comprehensive strategy to deal with that.”
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