The U.S. Department of Justice announced it has frozen, seized and moved to forfeit more than $578 million in digital assets tied to transnational Chinese criminal organizations that targeted U.S. residents through websites and social media. The actions are part of a coordinated effort by the District of Columbia’s Scam Center Strike Force, created last November by U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to combat Southeast Asian cryptocurrency fraud and related scams.
Pirro said cryptocurrency seizures are central to the Strike Force’s work, and her office will pursue forfeiture through the courts while seeking to return recovered funds to victims where possible. The DOJ notice indicated much of the seized crypto will not be redirected into the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve established by executive order in March 2025.
Public trackers such as BitcoinTreasuries.NET estimate that U.S. authorities may already hold as many as 328,372 BTC from various criminal seizures, though the White House had not publicly confirmed the size of any government-held digital asset stockpile at the time of the DOJ notice.
The seizures come amid a sharp rise in crypto-related scams in 2025. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis reported that impersonation crypto scams climbed roughly 1,400% year over year in 2025, driven by tactics like pig-butchering and fake investment schemes; the average amount stolen in these impersonation cases rose by about 600% over the same period.
Prosecutions have followed the uptick in fraud. Earlier this month, a judge handed down a 20-year prison sentence to an individual convicted of orchestrating a pig-butchering scheme that stole more than $73 million, with many victims based in the United States.
The DOJ’s announcement underscores a growing enforcement focus on disrupting cross-border crypto fraud networks, recovering illicit proceeds, and seeking restitution for victims while navigating questions about the disposition of seized digital assets.