Speaking at The Venetian in Las Vegas on April 27, Blanche delivered the clearest public version yet of an enforcement posture he first set down in writing over a year ago. He framed the core principle this way: "The basic principle is that if you are developing software, if you are a coder, if you are a part of that process and you ... are not helping [a] third party [from] using what you developed to commit crimes: you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged." FBI Director Kash Patel appeared alongside him at the event, which runs through April 29.

The remarks built on a four-page memo Blanche authored as Deputy Attorney General on April 7, 2025. That document dissolved the Biden-era National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, a unit formed in 2022, and instructed prosecutors to stop treating developers and exchanges as responsible for the independent actions of their users. Its central declaration: "The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator." Blanche was elevated to Acting Attorney General in April 2026 after President Trump removed Pam Bondi from the role. Before serving as Deputy Attorney General, Blanche was Trump's personal attorney during his New York criminal trial.

Government ethics disclosures, cited by CoinDesk and ProPublica, showed that when Blanche signed the April 7, 2025 memo, he held between $159,000 and $485,000 in cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin, Solana, and Ethereum, in apparent violation of a pledge to divest before handling crypto-related matters.

The Storm Case Cuts the Other Way

What no conference speech resolves is the active federal prosecution of Roman Storm, co-founder of Tornado Cash, an open-source, non-custodial mixer on the Ethereum blockchain that lets users obscure the on-chain trail of their transactions. The protocol has been effectively frozen since the Treasury Department sanctioned it in August 2022, with total value locked at or near zero since that date. Storm was arrested a year later on three charges: conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmission business, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to violate U.S. Iran sanctions. Storm's co-founder and fellow Tornado Cash co-developer Roman Semenov was charged alongside him in August 2023 and remains at large.

Prosecutors alleged the protocol processed more than $1 billion in illicit funds.

An August 2025 jury trial in the Southern District of New York produced a split outcome. Storm was convicted on the money transmission count, but jurors deadlocked on the two more serious charges. Storm's own reaction after the verdict pointed to the ambiguity: "A jury of 12 Americans heard four weeks of evidence and deadlocked: no verdict on money laundering, and no verdict on sanctions violations."

In March 2026, prosecutors moved to retry Storm on those two counts, requesting a start date of October 5 or 12, 2026. A Rule 29 motion for acquittal was argued before Judge Katherine Polk Failla on April 9; that ruling has not yet been issued. Storm's defense has argued throughout that "merely writing code, without ill intent, is not a crime." Over 65 organizations signed an open letter to the Trump administration calling the prosecution exactly the kind of regulation by prosecution that Blanche's own memo claimed to end. Community supporters have raised $4.7 million toward Storm's legal costs.

Conference statements are not binding legal doctrine. What matters is how prosecutors apply the intent standard Blanche described, and how courts ultimately rule on it. The Storm retrial, if it proceeds, is where that standard gets tested.

Not a Uniquely American Problem

For developers outside the United States, the policy shift matters but does not resolve the wider risk. Alexey Pertsev, a third Tornado Cash co-developer based in the Netherlands, was sentenced to five years and four months by a Dutch court in May 2024, before Blanche's memo existed. The Pertsev case demonstrates that developer liability theory is a global enforcement approach, not a feature of U.S. law alone. A stated softening in Washington does not immunize builders from prosecution in other jurisdictions.

In India, blockchain developers contributing to DeFi protocols or privacy tools face a regulatory gap. India has no enacted crypto legislation as of April 2026, though the Finance Bill 2025 expanded the definition of Virtual Digital Assets effective April 1. The Prevention of Money Laundering Act applies to registered Virtual Asset Service Providers, but no domestic framework explicitly defines or limits developer liability. Blanche's articulated benchmark gives Indian builders a reference point for current U.S. enforcement thinking; it does not resolve their exposure under Indian law.

Across Africa, the picture is similarly layered. Nigeria's Investment and Securities Act 2025 classifies digital assets as securities. Kenya's virtual asset service provider legislation, signed in October 2025, subjects digital asset businesses to dual regulatory oversight, and its definition of "service provider" is broad enough that it could reach protocol developers depending on how regulators read custody and control concepts. That interpretive question is precisely what three years of Storm litigation has circled in New York. South Africa maintains the continent's most developed crypto regulatory structure, with licensing requirements for Crypto Asset Service Providers and adopted Travel Rule standards. According to industry estimates, approximately eight African countries have enacted crypto-specific rules; most are still building their frameworks.

For builders in these markets, Washington's direction offers a cautious but real signal: the U.S. federal government has formally stepped back from treating code authors as criminally responsible for how end users deploy their work. The stated carve-out is narrow but meaningful. Willful violations of anti-money-laundering requirements and sanctions law remain fully prosecutable.

What to Watch Next

The most immediate marker is Judge Failla's ruling on Storm's acquittal motion, which could arrive any time before October. The motion addresses only the two deadlocked counts, money laundering and sanctions violations. Storm has already been convicted on the unlicensed money transmission count and that conviction stands regardless of the motion's outcome. A ruling in Storm's favor on the remaining counts would eliminate the need for a retrial on those charges and would offer a significant, if partial, judicial signal that writing neutral code does not satisfy the intent threshold required for liability on the more serious allegations.

A denial sends the case back to trial, and the outcome there will set a precedent that regulators in Lagos, Nairobi, and Mumbai will be able to read just as clearly as those in New York.

Blanche's remarks represent a genuine policy signal. The October docket is a live reminder of what that signal still does not guarantee.