- Senior DOJ official says writing code “without criminal intent is not a crime”
- Assurances come after the conviction of the Tornado Cash developer
- DOJ vows not to use prosecutions as a backdoor for crypto regulation
A senior official from the U.S. Department of Justice spoke to a worried audience of digital-currency creators in Wyoming and delivered a precise message they were eager to hear: the government’s perceived war on software developers is over.
In a major address, he declared that writing simple code without criminal intent is not a crime.
Matthew Galeotti, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Criminal Division, offered a powerful assurance on Thursday at an event hosted by the new crypto advocacy group American Innovation Project.
His remarks were met with strong applause and signaled a deliberate, notable shift in tone from a department whose recent actions had left many developers unsettled.
A clear line after the storm
Galeotti drew a firm line, promising the DOJ will not weaponize the criminal justice system to indirectly regulate the digital-asset sector.
“The Department will not use federal criminal law to create a new regulatory regime in the digital-asset industry,” he said.
The Department will not use prosecutions as a legislative tool. The Division should not leave developers guessing about what might trigger criminal enforcement.
At the core of his speech was an unambiguous pronouncement: “Writing code without criminal intent is not a crime.”
This was not a vague pledge. Galeotti referenced the statutes that were relied upon to convict developers linked to Tornado Cash and Samourai Wallet, stating the DOJ would not bring charges under that law unless prosecutors could point to “evidence that the defendant knew the specific legal requirements and intentionally violated them.”
He went further, extending protection to projects where “the software is truly decentralized, enables peer-to-peer transactions automatically, and no third party exercises custody or control over users’ assets.”
Dark shadows in the background
Those reassuring words came against a chilly backdrop of recent history.
The speech followed high-profile and controversial wins for prosecutors, most notably the conviction of Roman Storm, the developer associated with Tornado Cash, on charges related to operating an illegal money-transmission business—a verdict many in the industry saw as criminalizing open-source code.
The result highlighted a dissonance that has haunted the sector: a gap between senior department leadership and some of the most aggressive prosecutors in the field.
An April memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche signaled a more cautious approach under the current administration, even disbanding a national cryptocurrency enforcement team. Yet powerful offices like the Southern District of New York pressed ahead with cases against Storm and the Samourai Wallet developers, creating deep uncertainty and fear.
Careful relief
Galeotti’s address was a direct effort to quell that fear and assert a unified, top-down policy.
“Developers of neutral tools who lack criminal intent should not be held liable for others’ misuse of those tools,” he said.
If a third party’s criminal misuse of a tool violates the law, that third party should be prosecuted—not well-intentioned developers.
For an industry that has felt under siege and poured millions into lobbying to protect builders, this speech felt like a potential turning point.
It offered public validation of the core argument developers and advocates have long made.
“The fact that the DOJ acknowledges developers should not be held responsible for third parties’ misuse of code affirms what we have argued for years,” said Amanda Tuminelli, Executive Director of the DeFi Education Fund, in a statement.
Let’s celebrate — this is a moment of progress — and remember there is still much work to permanently change the law.