Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel told the Bitcoin 2026 Conference in Las Vegas on April 27 that Bitcoin developers who write code without knowingly helping third parties commit crimes will not be investigated or charged, marking the clearest public statement on developer liability from the nation’s top law enforcement officials since the Tornado Cash prosecutions began.

Bitcoin developers received the clearest federal reassurance in years when Acting AG Blanche and FBI Director Patel addressed the Bitcoin 2026 Conference on April 27 via videoconference, moderated by Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal. Bitcoin Magazine reported that Blanche told the audience: “If you are developing software, if you are a coder, if you are part of that process and you are not the third-party user and you are not helping and knowing the third party is using what you develop to commit crimes, you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged.” Patel said Bitcoin “isn’t going anywhere” and framed it as economic infrastructure alongside other assets that power everyday life.

What Patel’s Enforcement Redirect Means for Crypto Fraud Victims

Patel’s message was distinct from Blanche’s developer-focused framing. Patel described pig-butchering scam networks operated out of Southeast Asia as the FBI’s primary crypto enforcement priority, saying he plans to travel to Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand this summer to coordinate enforcement with local authorities. As crypto.news noted, the DeFi Education Fund sent a letter to White House crypto czar David Sacks on April 28, 2025, asking Trump to discontinue what it called the “Biden-era DOJ’s lawless campaign to criminalise open-source software development.” The industry has been watching whether Blanche’s April 2025 memo would actually change outcomes rather than just rhetoric. Grewal summarised the combined message from both officials as “crime is criminal; code alone shouldn’t be,” a framing the industry has sought from federal law enforcement for three years.

Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Centre said the message is a step forward but that the key question remains unanswered: exactly how the DOJ draws the line between publishing open-source code and actionable knowledge of wrongdoing. The Roman Storm retrial in October will be the first real test of whether the policy shift Blanche described changes the outcome of a case already in the system.

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