The Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) of the US Secret Service has seized digital assets worth approximately $400 million in recent years, according to Bloomberg sources.
The majority of the agency’s assets are stored in a single cold wallet, making it one of the largest in the world.
The agency built its crypto fund through a series of investigations. GIOC specialists tracked funds using open-source tools, blockchain analysis, and other methods.
Fraud related to digital currencies accounts for a significant portion of internet crime damage in the US. In 2024, Americans lost $9.3 billion to crypto scams—more than half of the total $16.6 billion.
A substantial portion of the damage affects elderly individuals, who lost nearly $2.8 billion, primarily on fake investment sites.
In such schemes, victims are lured by promises of profitable cryptocurrency investments through online communication. Initial deposits yield modest but steady returns. When an encouraged client increases their investment, often using borrowed funds, the platform shuts down and the client’s balance vanishes.
This scheme is linked to GIOC’s largest seizure of over $225 million in Tether’s USDT stablecoins.
In one case, agency investigators identified a domain name registered by scam organizers, exploiting a brief VPN failure.
In another real case, an unknown individual blackmailed a teenager from Idaho, threatening to send an intimate photo to relatives. The victim paid $300 twice before contacting the police.
GIOC experts reconstructed the extortion using blockchain data, screenshots, and receipts, employing a decoy payer. They traced an account registered with a Nigerian passport, processing about 6,000 transactions totaling nearly $4.1 million. The suspect was apprehended by UK police upon arrival in the country.
According to Bloomberg, GIOC relies on assistance from crypto industry partners in operations to recover stolen digital assets. Coinbase and Tether have publicly confirmed their cooperation with the agency in recent cases, providing information and freezing wallets.
In February, US authorities managed to return $8.2 million to victims of fraudulent crypto platforms, and in March, another $7 million.