With Bill Barr leaving the DoJ, what will the next Attorney General do about crypto?

In a tweet Monday evening, President Trump announced the departure of William Barr from the office of Attorney General. The announcement comes the same day that the Electoral College convened and confirmed Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.

Barr, long one of Trump’s most loyal allies, will be stepping down on December 23. Under Barr’s leadership, the Department of Justice has ramped up its actions in crypto, including high-profile criminal charges against BitMEX’s leadership and the release of a new framework for crypto enforcement in October. The latter half of this year has also seen the largest seizures of crypto assets yet.

Even among old-school Republicans, Barr, who previously served as Attorney General under George H.W. Bush, is particularly hawkish. In his resignation letter to Trump, Barr listed what he considered his front-line accomplishments:

“During your Administration, the Department of Justice has worked tirelessly to protect the public from violent crime; worked closely with leaders in Mexico to fight the drug cartels; cracked down on China’s exploitation of our economy and workers; [and] defended competition in the marketplace, especially in the technology sector.”

As you can see, Barr was especially concerned with illicit money flows abroad. During his tenure, the DoJ’s concern with crypto has been especially intense in light of perceived threats of terrorism financing and money laundering, though the DoJ’s enforcement framework paid lip service to civil offenses like securities fraud. The ongoing tech war against China has, indeed, spilled over into digitizing currencies, which may well prove a threat to the dollar’s international dominance.

But then what does a DoJ without Barr look like?