US Authorities Seize $25 Million in Crypto Tied to International Fraud Network

U.S. federal investigators say they have seized more than $25 million in cryptocurrency tied to an international fraud network, underscoring how digital assets remain central to cross-border scams even as enforcement agencies expand their tracing capabilities.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Secret Service’s Washington Field Office said on July 21 (UTC) that the haul was recovered through a cyber fraud task force investigation. Prosecutors have filed five civil forfeiture complaints to permanently confiscate the assets, which authorities allege are connected to schemes targeting victims in the U.S. and Canada.

Officials said the largest case involved a ‘romance scam’ that impacted more than 200 victims and totaled roughly $12.1 million. Another major tranche—about $10.4 million—stemmed from a suspicious wallet network flagged to the Secret Service by Canadian authorities. Investigators tracked more than 270 transactions suspected of being linked to fraudulent investment platforms, and said the two main cases account for about 85% of the assets sought for forfeiture.

Other cases involved alleged withdrawal restrictions, fake investment accounts, and tracing of scam proceeds. Authorities added that several key suspected money launderers appear to be based in Southeast Asia, with internet addresses linked to China, Malaysia, and Cambodia—jurisdictions that have frequently appeared in prior reports on industrialized scam operations and laundering pipelines.

The enforcement development arrives as on-chain infrastructure continues to evolve toward compliance-heavy use cases. Uniswap introduced a v4-based ‘permissioned pool’ feature on July 26 (UTC), according to Wu Blockchain, designed to enable trading of regulated assets such as tokenized securities, funds, and equities through automated market maker (AMM) liquidity pools.

The key change is an on-chain allowlist check intended to gate access for assets subject to regulatory requirements, while Uniswap’s existing v4 ‘permissionless’ pools will continue operating unchanged. Launch partners named in the report include Superstate, Securitize, and Dowgo, pointing to a growing push to combine DeFi liquidity mechanics with identity, eligibility, or jurisdictional controls needed for tokenized real-world assets.

In Washington, Sen. Bill Hagerty renewed calls for passage of a digital asset market structure bill tied to the ‘CLARITY’ effort, arguing that both investors and law enforcement need consistent rules. “Markets work best when everyone knows the rules,” Hagerty said, according to the report, as Congress continues debating how to draw clearer lines for oversight across the crypto sector.

Meanwhile, payments firm Wise plans to reapply for a national trust bank charter with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) under the framework of the GENIUS stablecoin bill, The Block reported. The OCC rejected Wise’s prior application earlier this week, citing a failure to demonstrate effective anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls, along with other illicit finance risks. Investment bank William Blair reportedly said a renewed filing is unlikely to change Wise’s core view of payments-focused stablecoins, with the company emphasizing cost reduction in cross-border transfers over any single payment rail.

Markets also digested several notable blockchain and exchange flows. Whale Alert flagged a transfer of 1,815 Bitcoin (BTC) from Kraken to an unidentified wallet—worth about $116.6 million—marking a sizable move of BTC off an exchange at a time when traders remain sensitive to signals around liquidity and custody preference.

Separately, ODaily cited on-chain analyst “ai_emo” as saying Arthur Hayes received 644.723 Ether (ETH) from FalconX roughly eight hours earlier, with the amount matching a USDC deposit made three days prior—suggesting a likely purchase. The report added that since July 15, Hayes has bought a total of 3,914.84 ETH via major market makers and exchanges at an average price of $1,908.86, and was sitting on an unrealized loss of about $113,000 at the time of publication.

On the analytical side, ODaily reported that crypto analyst “Killa” said the amount of BTC held by long-term holders that is currently underwater has risen above levels seen during the FTX collapse and is approaching the 2018 bear-market zone. The analyst cautioned that major cycle indicators behaved unusually in the last bull run and that future bottom signals may also diverge from historical patterns. Killa put Bitcoin’s realized price near $50,000 and noted prior cycles sometimes saw spot prices test long-term holder realized levels—while warning against assuming BTC must revisit that range.

Token supply dynamics also drew attention. Hyperliquid was reported to have burned roughly $5 million worth of its native token from priority fee revenue, a move typically viewed as a factor that can reduce circulating supply over time, depending on issuance and broader tokenomics.

In DeFi infrastructure, Odos—the decentralized trade aggregator—will shut down all services on July 30, 2026 (UTC), ODaily reported. The Odos app will switch to read-only mode on July 27, allowing users to view balances and history but not execute new trades. The company said it has never directly custody-held user funds, emphasizing that assets in external wallets such as MetaMask, Rabby, or hardware wallets remain controlled by users’ private keys. However, users who created wallets via Google, Apple, or email login are urged to export their private keys or move assets to self-custody wallets before the shutdown date.

Odos was spun out in 2022 from Semiotic Labs, a contributor to The Graph ecosystem, and has routed more than $104 billion in cumulative volume across roughly 15 blockchain networks, the report said. Monthly volume peaked around $7.85 billion in December 2024 before declining to the hundreds of millions of dollars by mid-2026, reflecting a broader shakeout among DeFi routing and aggregation services amid shifting user behavior and competitive pressure.

The firm said the ODOS token will continue to exist independently of the service shutdown and that Odos DAO and the operating company are separate entities. It also said there are no plans for new products, token migrations, token claims, or airdrops, warning users to watch for scam announcements.

Finally, prediction markets suggested tempered expectations for ETH upside into year-end. Polymarket traders are pricing the probability that Ethereum reaches $3,000 at some point in 2026 at 17%, according to ODaily. A contract tracking whether ETH hits $1,000 or $3,000 first has seen about $95,300 in volume and is set to settle using Binance’s ETH/USDT one-minute candle data on Dec. 31, 2026. Another Polymarket market for ETH’s 2026 price has neared $9 million in volume, with traders assigning an 83% chance of $2,000, 56% for $2,500, 12% for $3,500, and less than 4% for $5,000.

A separate Polymarket contract tracking whether ETH sets a new all-time high by Dec. 31 is showing a 6% probability, with a 1% chance by Sept. 30, while related markets on Kalshi put the odds of ETH clearing $3,500, $3,750, and $4,000 in 2026 at roughly 15%, 12%, and 10%, respectively.