DOJ strike force restrains $938M scam crypto

TLDR

US federal authorities have frozen about $938 million in scam-linked crypto as part of a Justice Department strike force crackdown on a Telegram-based marketplace called Xinbi Guarantee.

1. The DOJ Scam Center Strike Force seized Xinbi Guarantee, restraining about $52 million in one day and bringing its total restrained scam crypto to roughly $938 million.
2. Xinbi reportedly processed over $20 billion for scam operators, including sanctioned and North Korean-linked actors, highlighting how crypto infrastructure can be abused while still remaining traceable.
3. The restrained funds are not yet returned to victims, and the crackdown signals more global coordination, so users should expect tighter controls on suspicious wallets, platforms and flow patterns.

Deep Dive

1. What The Strike Force Did

The Justice Departments Scam Center Strike Force, working with the US Treasury, seized the Chinese-language scam marketplace Xinbi Guarantee and restrained about $52 million in cryptocurrency in a single coordinated operation. This lifted the strike forces cumulative restrained total to about $938 million in scam-linked crypto since its launch in late 2025, according to detailed coverage of the Xinbi enforcement action.

Xinbi operated primarily on Telegram as a marketplace where vendors sold services to scam centers, including fake investment sites, laundering pipelines and even recruitment of trafficking victims. A federal court in Washington authorized the seizure of Xinbis Telegram channels and wallets, and investigators targeted 49 wallets in total, including two holding about $12 million.

2. How Xinbi Fits The Scam Ecosystem

Xinbi used an escrow model, holding payments until vendors completed jobs, which helped prosecutors trace victim funds via posted wallet addresses. Treasury and investigative reports say Xinbi processed over $20 billion in transactions, with links to sanctioned entities and reported use by North Korean hackers, as described in the federal enforcement summary.

This sits alongside broader data showing networks of similar services processing over $16 billion in illicit crypto in 2025. Although illicit flows are a small share of total crypto volume, the absolute amounts are large enough to attract aggressive cross-border enforcement.

3. What To Watch Next

Legally, restrained means funds are frozen under court order, not yet fully forfeited or redistributed, so victim compensation and final outcomes will depend on future proceedings. The strike force has also supported raids on 13 Chinese-run scam compounds in Madagascar, indicating a shift toward multinational, multi-agency operations against scam centers and their crypto pipelines.

For regular users and platforms, the likely next steps include:

1. More wallet blacklisting and sanctions designations around services like Xinbi and its successor tools.
2. Increased scrutiny on escrow, OTC and messaging-app based payment channels that touch regulated venues.
3. Higher expectations on exchanges and service providers to trace and block flows tied to known scam infrastructure.

Conclusion

The strike forces move to restrain $938 million in scam-linked crypto shows that law enforcement is increasingly targeting the infrastructure that powers investment scams, not just individual fraudsters. That combination of on-chain traceability, sanctions tools and international cooperation is likely to expand, which reduces impunity for large-scale scam networks but also increases compliance friction for any services that sit close to those flows.