Coinbase froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency tied to Southeast Asian fraud syndicates, acting under the U.S. Department of Justice's Scam Center Strike Force. The four-day event, branded "Disruption Week," ran from May 18 to May 21 in Washington and was announced on June 3. Federal investigators from the FBI, Secret Service, and Homeland Security handed private participants intelligence on specific Southeast Asian targets; firms then froze accounts, severed infrastructure, and cut off funds linked to crypto investment scams.
Coinbase Leads Private Sector Freeze
Private-sector participants voluntarily froze over $3.8 million in crypto tied to money laundering, with Coinbase accounting for the bulk. The exchange joined Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, SpaceX, TRM Labs, Silent Push, and Zenlayer to pool intelligence and strike syndicates running romance scams, investment fraud, and forced-labor compounds. Coinbase said its share — the largest single contribution among the firms — went directly to wallets controlled by those networks. "This operation is proof that scammers can't be stopped by any single company or agency acting alone," Coinbase stated.
Multinational Crackdown Expands
Foreign law enforcement partners included the Royal Thai Police, UK National Crime Agency, Australian Federal Police, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, and New Zealand Police, with Meta coordinating private-sector efforts. The DOJ said the week disrupted activity across over 1.4 million social media and email accounts, decommissioned servers tied to scam networks, and led to seven arrests in Thailand. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro noted, "Cyber-enabled and crypto investment fraud is devastating Main Street Americans, wiping out life savings and preying on some of our most vulnerable citizens."
Investment Fraud Losses Surge
Investment scams became the most reported crime type in 2023, with crypto investment fraud making up 83% of that category, per the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. Reported losses climbed from $3.96 billion in 2023 to $5.8 billion in 2024, then rose 24% to over $7.2 billion last year. Many schemes operate from industrial-scale compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, where trafficked workers are forced to defraud victims under threat of violence.
Coinbase's Past Actions and Regulatory Scrutiny
Coinbase previously traced funds from similar operations, helping the U.S. Secret Service seize $225 million in stolen crypto in June 2025 from a human-trafficking syndicate behind pig-butchering romance scams. Yet the exchange also faces its own federal probe — the DOJ opened a criminal investigation into a 2025 insider data breach where overseas contractors were bribed to leak user data.