Secret Service seizes $400 million in crypto and builds one of the world’s biggest wallets

The US Secret Service has quietly seized nearly $400 million in digital assets over the past decade and has accumulated one of the world’s largest crypto cold wallets, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the issue.

The agency’s Global Research Operations Center (GIOC) reportedly told Jamie Millam, a research analyst at the U.S. Secret Service, that it reportedly told Bermuda law enforcement officials last month.

Many of the agency’s cryptographic paths are found in a single cold storage wallet, resulting from a series of investigations of fraud. Scammers lead them to target seemingly legitimate crypto investment platforms in one typical scheme. Victims often see early benefits before the site disappears in deposits.

“That’s how they do it,” Lamb said. “They will send you photos of really good looking guys and girls. But it’s probably the old Russian man.”

Related: Brazil’s central bank service provider has been hacked and $140 million theft

Blockchain Trail masks crypto fraud

Lam’s team uses domain records, blockchain transactions and VPN slip-up to identify scammers. In one case, cryptocurrency payments led the investigator to another wallet. In another, a short VPN failure exposed the IP address, and agents stitched together the fraudulent digital trail.

Kali Smith is at the helm of Secret Service’s Crypto strategy. KaliSmith has directed officials from over 60 countries to clarify online financial crimes.

Agents focus on jurisdictions with weak surveillance or with programs selling residences to foreigners. “After just a week of training, sometimes you think, ‘Wow, I didn’t realize this was happening in our country,'” Smith said.

The Secret Service work has discovered scams ranging from romance investment schemes to sextori cases. One survey included an Idaho teenager who sent nude photos to strangers online. The con man forced the teens twice to $300 before they went to the police.

The analyst tracked payments through another forced teenager acting as Money Lava, leading to an account tied to a deal of around $4.1 million on Nigerian passports. British police arrested a person with a horrific suspicion when he arrived in Guilford, England, where he remains in custody waiting for extradition.

Related: “Small Possibility” Bitcoin Transfer of $8.6 billion was a hack

Crypto scams top losses

Crypto-related fraud has become the leading driver of losses in the US internet crime. Americans reported $9.3 billion theft in 2024 in Crypto scams. This represents more than half of the $16.6 billion losses in internet crime that year, FBI data shows.

Meanwhile, the first half of 2025 saw more than $2.47 billion in losses from hacking, fraud and exploits, up nearly 3% compared to the $2.4 billion theft in 2024.