US Secret Service Seizes Over $102 Million in Crypto Assets in 254 Cases

Quick take:

• The US Secret Service seized more than $102 million in cryptocurrency.
• The assets seized were from 254 cases that were registered with the authorities.

The US Secret Service has been heavy on catching illicit transactions involving cryptocurrency. They have successfully seized over $102 million in crypto from the culprits who were connected with the investigations.

The Secret Service is most recognized for guarding presidents and undertaking financial and cybercrime studies.

However, agents and analysts regularly watch the flow of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on the blockchain, comparable to old-fashioned surveillance, according to David Smith, assistant director of investigations.

“When you follow a digital currency wallet, it’s no different than an email address that has some correlating identifiers,” Smith said in an interview at the agency’s headquarters.

He also added that once an individual makes a transaction and when it gets embedded in the blockchain, they have the ability to follow the wallet address and trace it.

$102 million seized in 254 cases

The 254 cases include an investigation with the Romanian National Police, which targeted over 900 victims across the US. The case contained schemes involving false ads posted on popular auction sites and sales sites for luxury assets that never existed. The culprits also engaged in a money-laundering scheme where the culprits converted the funds to digital assets.

Other investigations focused on a Russian cybercrime ring that used a cryptocurrency exchange to launder money, as well as a ransomware attack linked to Russian and North Korean criminals, in which Bitcoin payments made by US companies to stop the attacks were sent to the suspects' cryptocurrency wallets.

Investigators are on a hunting spree, and they are trying to track the culprits who try to convert stolen crypto to stablecoins. To be successful in the mission, they often keep a close watch on the market. Click here to watch the official video by CNBC and Shep Smith.