President Trump has fired Pam Bondi and replaced her with Todd Blanche as interim U.S. Attorney General — handing control of the Justice Department to the official who dismantled the DOJ’s crypto enforcement unit in April 2025 and holds up to $485,000 in personal digital asset holdings.

President Trump has fired Pam Bondi and replaced her with Todd Blanche as interim U.S. Attorney General — handing control of the Justice Department to the official who dismantled the DOJ’s crypto enforcement unit in April 2025 and holds up to $485,000 in personal digital asset holdings.

Bondi confirmed her departure in an April 2 post on X, writing that she would be “working tirelessly to transition the office of Attorney General to the amazing Todd Blanche” before moving to an unspecified private sector role. NBC News confirmed that Bondi was fired following growing frustration from the president over her handling of key priorities.

Blanche is not a new name in the digital asset industry. As Deputy Attorney General, he authored the April 2025 memo that formally disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, declaring in plain language that the DOJ “is not a digital assets regulator” and criticizing the prior administration’s approach as a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution.”

The memo directed prosecutors to stop pursuing cases against crypto exchanges, mixers, and offline wallets for end-user behavior, shifting enforcement focus to individuals directly defrauding investors. The decision triggered a swift backlash from Democratic lawmakers, who argued it opened the door to sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, and large-scale financial fraud.

Blanche also holds reported personal crypto exposure of up to $485,000 — a detail that will almost certainly draw scrutiny from Congress as he leads the nation’s top law enforcement agency.

What changes at the DOJ

Blanche’s elevation to acting AG signals continuity — and likely intensification — of the DOJ’s current posture toward digital asset enforcement. The NCET, which handled major crypto fraud cases and supported cross-border law enforcement coordination, remains disbanded. Its closure, combined with the prior directive to deprioritize structural crypto enforcement, has already reshaped how federal prosecutors approach the space.

With Blanche now at the top, those policy choices become structurally harder to reverse regardless of who eventually takes the permanent AG role. Trump announced the change via Truth Social, describing Blanche as a “very talented and respected Legal Mind.” The White House has not yet specified a timeline for a permanent nomination, with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin reportedly under consideration.

A U.S. fighter jet identified as an F-15 was shot down over Iran on April 3, with one crew member rescued and President Trump briefed, adding a sharp new layer of escalation to a conflict that has already pushed Bitcoin down more than 40% from its October 2025 all-time high.

A U.S. fighter jet identified as an F-15 was shot down over Iran on April 3, with one crew member rescued and President Trump briefed, adding a sharp new layer of escalation to a conflict that has already pushed Bitcoin (BTC) down more than 40% from its October 2025 all-time high. Iranian state media published images of the downed aircraft, which CNN analysis matched to an F-15. The White House press secretary confirmed that “President Trump has been briefed,” with live coverage updated at 1:12 p.m. EDT.

Bitcoin was trading near $67,000 at the time of writing, down modestly on the day. The downed aircraft adds a new variable to an already fragile macro backdrop. As crypto.news has tracked, Bitcoin has repeatedly tested the $65,000–$67,000 range as a support zone during periods of heightened U.S.–Iran tension, with sharper downside reserved for moments of genuine escalation — the initial U.S. strikes sent BTC briefly to $63,000 before markets stabilized.

The incident lands on Good Friday, with traditional U.S. equity markets closed for the Easter holiday. Oil, already trading above $100 per barrel amid the ongoing Strait of Hormuz closure, could spike sharply when Asian markets open overnight. A sustained move higher in oil would intensify inflation concerns and further reduce the Federal Reserve’s room to cut rates — a combination that has been the dominant headwind for crypto since the conflict began.

Trump’s Hormuz signal

In a separate post on X, Trump suggested the Strait of Hormuz could be reopened “with a little more time” — a statement investors read as leaving space for a negotiated resolution even as military operations continue. As crypto.news reported on April 2, Trump had addressed the nation from the White House describing U.S. forces as nearing the “final stages” of the campaign while warning of continued strikes over the following weeks. The contradiction between active military pressure and diplomatic signaling has kept markets in an uncertain holding pattern. For Bitcoin, any credible de-escalation — particularly one that restores Hormuz shipping and brings oil back below $100 — represents the single most significant potential catalyst for a sustained recovery from the current range.

X is preparing to automatically lock any crypto scam account that mentions cryptocurrency for the first time in its posting history, with Head of Product Nikita Bier saying the measure should eliminate 99% of the economic incentive behind the platform’s most persistent category of fraud.

X is preparing to automatically lock any crypto scam account that mentions cryptocurrency for the first time in its posting history, with Head of Product Nikita Bier saying the measure should eliminate 99% of the economic incentive behind the platform’s most persistent category of fraud. Bier confirmed the plan in an April 1 post on X replying to Benjamin White, founder of prediction market Predictfully, who publicly shared his account hack experience after a phishing email disguised as a copyright violation notice stole his credentials.

White’s experience is a textbook example of the attack pattern X is now targeting. His credentials were stolen through a fake login page that captured both his password and two-factor authentication code in real time. The hijacked account was then immediately redirected toward fraudulent crypto promotions — a sequence that has become standard practice among organized scam networks operating on the platform. “Yeah, we’re aware,” Bier wrote in reply. “We are in the process of implementing auto-locking + verification if a user posts about cryptocurrency for the first time in the history of their account. This should kill 99% of the incentive, especially since Google isn’t doing shit to stop the phishing.”

The scale of the problem

Crypto scams on X have intensified through 2026. In March, on-chain investigator ZachXBT traced a coordinated network of more than ten X accounts that used war-related panic posts to funnel users toward fraudulent crypto schemes, with on-chain evidence showing the cluster earned six figures from the campaign. Earlier in September 2025, X itself disclosed a bribery network in which scammers paid middlemen to reinstate suspended crypto fraud accounts, prompting legal action from the company.

How the feature works — and its limits

The auto-lock mechanism targets a specific and near-universal signature of scam activity: accounts with no prior history of crypto discussion suddenly posting promotional or transactional crypto content. By requiring verification before that first crypto post goes live, X introduces friction at the exact point where hijacked account abuse begins.

The feature does not appear to affect established accounts that already have a history of discussing crypto on the platform. Bier acknowledged that Google’s inaction on phishing emails remains a compounding vulnerability in the broader scam chain — one that X cannot fully control from its end alone.

A Bank of Canada staff paper found that Aave V3 reported zero non-performing loans in 2024, with overcollateralization and automated liquidations helping prevent lender losses in its Ethereum lending market.

Using transaction-level data from Jan. 27, 2023, to May 6, 2025, the study found that positions were typically liquidated before collateral values fell below outstanding debt, helping contain lender losses across the sample.

But the model came with a tradeoff, the paper said. While it protected lenders from unrecovered losses, it also shifted risk onto borrowers and constrained capital efficiency compared with traditional lending systems.

According to the paper, Aave V3’s design relies on automated risk controls rather than traditional underwriting, requiring borrowers to post more collateral than they borrow and liquidating positions when they breach risk thresholds.

Recursive leverage fueled borrowing demand

According to the paper, Aave V3’s lending activity was not driven solely by users seeking liquidity. It found that recursive leverage accounted for over 20% of total borrowed volume and 8.2% of borrowing transactions during the sample period. 

Recursive leverage involves repeatedly borrowing against collateral, redeploying the borrowed assets as new collateral and borrowing again to amplify exposure.

Related: Aave V4 goes live on Ethereum after governance vote clears rollout

The study said the dynamic made borrowers more exposed when markets turned. According to the paper, liquidations on Aave V3 tended to occur in concentrated waves, with four assets accounting for 90% of total liquidated value. 

This includes Wrapped Ether (WETH), Wrapped Staked Ether (wstETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Wrapped eETH (weETH).

The paper estimated that borrower losses during major liquidation events could be significant. It said liquidation fees typically ranged from 5% to 10% of liquidated value, while missed gains from subsequent price recoveries pushed combined losses to about 10% to 30% in some cases. 

The staff paper suggested that while the design for Aave V3 helped prevent unrecovered bad debt in the sample, it did so by exposing borrowers to abrupt losses when collateral prices fell sharply. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Aave for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

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