The U.S. Department of Justice has restrained approximately $938 million in fraud-linked cryptocurrency through its Scam Center Strike Force, a cumulative total that grew by roughly $52 milli
The U.S. Department of Justice has restrained approximately $938 million in fraud-linked cryptocurrency through its Scam Center Strike Force, a cumulative total that grew by roughly $52 million in a single day as investigators froze wallets tied to the Xinbi Guarantee scam marketplace, marking one of the most aggressive on-chain enforcement pushes yet against Southeast Asian scam infrastructure.
The DOJ crypto freeze figure reflects a precise cumulative balance of $938,460,156.82 restrained by the Strike Force's Crypto Seizure team, per the program page updated September 9, 2026. The number captures assets pulled from the fraud schemes the unit targets, not a completed forfeiture or victim distribution. For related coverage, see FT: Crypto Billionaires Face Offshore Trust Refusals.
Cumulative cryptocurrency restrained
$938,460,156.82
DOJ reports this cumulative cryptocurrency restraint balance on its Scam Center Strike Force page, updated September 9, 2026. Restrained funds are not confirmed victim repayments.The Strike Force, formed in 2025, combines the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the DOJ Criminal Division, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service to counter Southeast Asian cryptocurrency fraud, according to the DOJ program page. Its Crypto Seizure team frames recovering stolen funds and returning them to victims as its focus, though the reported balance is not stated to be a completed refund. For related coverage, see EU Sanctions Over 100 Banks and Crypto Operators: What It Means.
The one-day increment stems from a DOJ announcement titled "Scam Center Strike Force Conducts Seizures of Chinese-Run Illicit Scammer Marketplace, and Restrains $52 Million in Laundered Crypto Scammer Funds In One Day," linked from the program page. The Hacker News, in September 9 reporting by Ravie Lakshmanan, quoted DOJ describing approximately $52 million of scam-laundering crypto restrained in one day, bringing the Strike Force total to roughly $938 million.
That framing matters: the one-day action is included in the cumulative figure, not additional to it. The headline does not describe a combined total of $990 million; the smaller sum is a subset of the larger balance already reported by the DOJ.
The scale echoes other targeted stablecoin actions, including a case in which Tether froze $39.3 million in USDT tied to Xinbi Guarantee, underscoring how enforcement is increasingly concentrated on the same scam-marketplace nexus.
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, which says it worked with the U.S. Secret Service to identify the targets, reported that 52 wallets belonging to Xinbi Guarantee and its merchants were frozen beginning at 8am UTC on September 8, 2026, holding $52.8 million in USDT. The firm's intelligence enabled the freezing action, per its September 9 analysis by Dr. Tom Robinson.
Elliptic dates the wallet freezes to September 8, one day before the DOJ announcement, a distinction the single competitor account at The Hacker News omitted. The firm's $52.8 million USDT tally sits alongside DOJ's "approximately $52 million" wording; the figures describe the same Xinbi action and should not be stacked.
Elliptic reported that Xinbi Guarantee and its merchants processed at least $24 billion in transactions since launching in 2022, while the distinct Xinbi Pay service handled a further $6 billion. The Hacker News separately noted two seized Xinbi payment wallets held about $12 million, a figure that should not be added to the 52-wallet total as an independent recovery.
Dr. Tom Robinson, Elliptic's founder and chief scientist, argued the freeze strikes at the trust mechanism these marketplaces depend on. Elliptic participated in the investigation, a disclosure that bears on how its assessment is weighed.
Merchants and users of these services will now be operating with the knowledge that their wallets may be identified and frozen at any time. This uncertainty undermines the core mechanism these marketplaces rely on to function. Dr. Tom Robinson, founder and chief scientist, Elliptic
Elliptic also reported that Xinbi exchanged roughly $2.8 million of remaining USDT into USDD after the freezes and signaled a shift toward the alternative stablecoin, an early sign of operators adapting to freeze risk on Tether-issued assets.
The reported action is a restraint, not a settled outcome. The DOJ program page describes funds as restrained; the supplied evidence does not state that assets were finally forfeited, liquidated, or returned to victims, and those legal stages remain distinct from freezing.
USDT, the asset named in the frozen Xinbi wallets, traded at $0.9998 with a market capitalization near $183.5 billion as of September 13, 2026; the snapshot is current context and does not reflect the September 8 freeze valuation. Broad market sentiment sat at 61 on the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, in "Greed" territory, though that gauge does not measure any reaction to this enforcement action.
Enforcement against stablecoin-denominated laundering has broadened this year, from a U.S. court case targeting USDT at a specific address to cross-chain tracing efforts such as the FBI's seizure of crypto from a Hamas-linked network, situating the Xinbi freeze within a wider pattern of address-level interdiction rather than a one-off.
The dedicated September 9 DOJ enforcement release returned an empty readable body; its title was read on the program page and its core statement via The Hacker News. No court order, forfeiture judgment, victim distribution record or wallet-address list was obtained, so completed forfeiture, refunds, and independently verified on-chain balances cannot be inferred.
An OFAC designation angle appears in the topic entities, but the underlying Treasury action was not fetched and is not asserted here. These are gaps in the available evidence, not proof that the DOJ has withheld details.
The next concrete triggers are any DOJ forfeiture filing or victim-restitution notice that would move the $938 million balance from restraint toward final disposition, and further Elliptic tracing of Xinbi's pivot to USDD, which would test whether operators can outrun freeze risk by rotating stablecoins. Policy watchers should also track whether the Strike Force publishes updated cumulative totals, given the balance already climbed within a single day.
How much fraud-linked cryptocurrency did the DOJ freeze? Approximately $938 million cumulatively, with the DOJ program page citing a precise $938,460,156.82 balance as of September 9, 2026.
Is the $52 million included in the $938 million total? Yes. The one-day Xinbi-related action is a subset of the cumulative figure, not an addition to it.
Have the frozen funds been returned to victims? The supplied evidence does not establish that funds have been forfeited or returned; DOJ describes victim recovery as an objective, not a completed step.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.
The post U.S. DOJ Freezes About $938M in Fraud-Linked Crypto was initially published on Coincu.
