#DOJWontProsecuteDevs: The Government Said It Won't Come After Builders. Then It Did Anyway. The DOJ's "Ending Regulation By Prosecution" memo was celebrated as a win for crypto developers. The National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team was disbanded. Prosecutors were told to stop charging regulatory violations unless the defendant knowingly broke the law. Writing code, on its own, is not a crime. That was the policy. The practice is messier. Roman Storm — the Ethereum developer behind Tornado Cash — was convicted on one charge, acquitted on two others, and then the DOJ refiled on the two acquitted counts anyway. Two Bitcoin privacy developers were sent to prison. A third developer, Michael Lewellen, sued the DOJ preemptively to confirm he wouldn't be prosecuted for his open-source crowdfunding tool. A federal judge dismissed the case — not because he was safe, but because the DOJ's pro-developer statements meant he couldn't prove a "credible threat of prosecution" existed. The protection became the shield that blocked him from seeking protection. Coin Center's executive director summed up the bind bluntly: the DOJ can go after developers when it wants, then claim to be pro-developer when it suits them. The policy gives cover without giving certainty. The line the DOJ draws is intent. Bad actors who knowingly facilitate money laundering get prosecuted. Good-faith developers who build tools that bad actors later misuse — in theory, they're safe. In practice, that line is drawn by prosecutors, after the fact, on a case-by-case basis. For builders in the US right now: the memo is real. The risk isn't zero. #DOJWontProsecuteDevs