Senators from both major U.S. parties have teamed up to tackle the growing wave of crypto-related fraud, unveiling new legislation that would create a dedicated federal taskforce to combat scams in the digital asset space.
The bill, known as the SAFE Crypto Act, is being spearheaded by Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS). Their proposal would require the U.S. Treasury Secretary to set up a specialized taskforce focused on reducing cryptocurrency scams and improving the government’s overall response to crypto crime.
Under the bill’s text, the Treasury Department would have 180 days from the date the law is enacted to formally establish this taskforce. Once formed, the group would operate at the federal level but is designed to connect directly with local and state law enforcement, regulators, and private-sector stakeholders.
A key provision is the requirement that the taskforce publish a comprehensive report within one year of its creation. That report must outline a clear national strategy for fighting crypto fraud, including recommendations on enforcement priorities, interagency cooperation, data sharing, and public education efforts. The goal is not just to respond to scams after the fact, but to build a proactive, coordinated plan to prevent them.
Membership of the taskforce would not be limited to government officials. The legislation explicitly calls for the inclusion of representatives from the cryptocurrency industry itself—such as executives from exchanges and experts from blockchain intelligence and analytics firms. Lawmakers argue that bringing in practitioners who understand how digital asset markets and blockchain technology actually work is essential to building effective protections.
The act emphasizes that crypto scams are now a major consumer protection problem. From fake investment platforms and phishing schemes to romance scams and illicit “rug pulls,” fraudsters have increasingly turned to digital assets as a tool to steal funds and obscure money flows. Senator Slotkin has stressed that Americans deserve the same level of protection in emerging financial technologies as they do in traditional banking and securities markets.
“It’s critical we protect Americans against scams in all industries, but especially cryptocurrency,” the bill’s sponsors argue, framing this effort as part of a broader push to modernize consumer protection. A central focus of the SAFE Crypto Act is to give local law enforcement the tools, training, and support they need to investigate and prosecute crypto-related crimes, which often involve complex technical and jurisdictional challenges.
For many police departments and prosecutors, digital asset cases can be daunting. Transactions are recorded on blockchains rather than in conventional bank ledgers, criminals move funds across borders in seconds, and evidence often spans multiple platforms and service providers. The proposed taskforce is meant to serve as a hub of expertise that can help bridge this knowledge gap.
In practice, this could mean developing standardized training programs for officers, creating model procedures for seizing and holding digital assets, and compiling best practices on how to work with exchanges and analytics firms to trace stolen funds. The bill also envisions better coordination among federal agencies that already touch crypto in different ways, such as financial regulators, law enforcement, and national security entities.
The one-year report mandate is particularly significant. It forces the taskforce to turn its initial work into a concrete roadmap, rather than an open-ended advisory body. Lawmakers want a detailed assessment of where the government is falling short, what data is missing, which types of scams are causing the most harm, and which tools or authorities are needed to respond more effectively.
The taskforce’s recommendations are expected to cover both enforcement and prevention. That could include proposals to improve how victims are informed about their rights, guidelines for financial institutions and exchanges to detect suspicious activity, and strategies to make it harder for criminals to cash out stolen crypto into traditional currencies.
Another important element is the explicit involvement of the private sector. Crypto exchanges, wallet providers, blockchain analytics companies, and other service providers are often on the front lines of detecting and mitigating fraud. By including them in the taskforce, the bill aims to turn their technical expertise into policy guidance—whether that means refining know-your-customer practices, improving scam detection tools, or standardizing how incidents are reported to authorities.
Industry participation could also help ensure that any future regulations or enforcement priorities are aligned with how the technology actually works. Rather than imposing rules that inadvertently push activity into less regulated or offshore environments, lawmakers hope that this collaborative model will strike a balance between innovation and investor protection.
Beyond law enforcement and regulation, the SAFE Crypto Act implicitly acknowledges that education is a crucial part of any anti-scam strategy. While the bill itself focuses on the structure and mandate of the taskforce, a national strategy on crypto fraud would almost certainly include public awareness campaigns. These could warn consumers about common red flags—guaranteed returns, unsolicited investment offers, fake support accounts, and pressure to move funds off reputable platforms into unknown wallets.
If implemented effectively, the taskforce could also help standardize data collection on crypto crime. Today, estimates of losses to digital asset scams vary widely, and reporting is often fragmented across agencies and jurisdictions. A centralized federal effort could lead to more reliable statistics on the scale and types of fraud, making it easier to measure which interventions are working and where new threats are emerging.
For everyday crypto users, the SAFE Crypto Act doesn’t directly change how they buy, sell, or hold digital assets. Instead, it seeks to build the institutional infrastructure behind the scenes: better-trained investigators, clearer interagency roles, and tighter cooperation with legitimate industry players. Over time, that could translate into faster action when scams are detected and a greater chance of recovering funds—or at least identifying perpetrators.
For the crypto industry, the bill is a double-edged development. On one hand, it signals that Washington is taking fraud and consumer harm seriously, which could lead to more enforcement pressure on bad actors. On the other, many legitimate firms have been asking for clearer rules and closer dialogue with regulators, seeing this as a path to broader mainstream acceptance. A formal taskforce that includes industry voices could help push policy discussions in a more informed and constructive direction.
The bipartisan nature of the SAFE Crypto Act is also noteworthy in a political environment where digital assets often spark sharp disagreements. By framing the initiative around fraud prevention and consumer protection—rather than broader debates about crypto’s future—the bill has a better chance of attracting support across ideological lines. Protecting retirees, small investors, and everyday consumers from scams tends to be a unifying issue.
If the act passes, one of the early tests for the new taskforce will be how quickly it can move from high-level meetings to tangible outcomes. Victims of crypto scams often face long delays, limited recourse, and confusing jurisdictional issues. A meaningful improvement would be visible in clearer points of contact for reporting incidents, better guidance from law enforcement, and more consistent handling of cases involving digital assets.
The SAFE Crypto Act also raises a longer-term question: whether the model of a dedicated, cross-agency taskforce could become a template for addressing other fast-moving areas of financial technology. As decentralized finance, tokenized assets, and new payment rail innovations continue to evolve, the government’s ability to respond coherently will depend on breaking down silos and integrating technical expertise into policy.
In that sense, the proposed federal crypto scam taskforce is being positioned as an “important foundation” for a more modern approach to financial oversight in the digital age. By requiring a strategic plan, setting clear timelines, and embedding collaboration between public authorities and private innovators, the bill aims to move the U.S. response to crypto fraud from ad-hoc reactions toward a more systematic, forward-looking framework.