Key Takeaways
- The United States Secret Service is at the forefront of law enforcement efforts to police crypto.
- The agency recently said it has seized nearly $400 million worth of crypto in the last decade.
- It recently helped orchestrate the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever.
When the United States Secret Service was formed in 1865, it was initially tasked with tackling the counterfeiting of U.S. currency.
And although its role has since expanded to include providing security for American political leaders, safeguarding the U.S. financial system remains central to its mandate.
In 2025, that mandate includes investigating cryptocurrency scams, as detailed at a recent event in Bermuda that offered a rare glimpse into the Secret Service’s work tackling crypto crime.
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A History of Digital Currency Investigations
During a series of workshops in June, members of the Secret Service’s Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) provided training to the Bermuda Police Service’s financial crimes unit.
Commenting on the event, Patrick Freaney, head of the agency’s New York field office, said: “We’ve been following the money for 160 years. This training is part of that mission.”
The initiative was part of the Secret Service’s ongoing outreach and collaboration with global law enforcement partners, with whom it is sharing best practices honed over years of investigating digital asset crimes.
Even before the rise of modern crypto, the Secret Service was instrumental in policing early digital currencies.
Alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), it investigated E-Gold in 2006, eventually leading to the dismantling of the digital gold platform in 2009.
Later, the Secret Service, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security helped take down Liberty Reserve in 2013.
Over the last decade, the GIOC has seized nearly $400 million in digital assets, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, July 5.
The Challenge of Decentralization
While the E-Gold and Liberty Reserve busts were significant for their legal implications, both platforms operated more or less out in the open, providing anonymous currency services through registered businesses.
However, in the blockchain era, cybercriminals don’t need to rely on centralized services to maintain digital value.
That hasn’t stopped authorities from trying to shut down decentralized platforms used by criminals. They have even gone after key figureheads like Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev.
Yet, despite arrests, sanctions, and ongoing law enforcement scrutiny, Tornado Cash remains operational, as do privacy coins like Monero that function as modern equivalents to Liberty Reserve.
Against this backdrop, agencies like the Secret Service have turned their attention to investigating specific criminal usage and leveraging blockchain analytics to track down perpetrators.
Evolving Investigative Tools
From the very early days of blockchain analytics, law enforcement agencies have played a central role in developing the tools to trace illicit transactions.
Today, leading firms like Elliptic and Chainalysis count the Secret Service as a client.
For example, Chainalysis helped the agency recover $225 million in USDT from an Asian money laundering network, representing the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever.
Similarly, Elliptic provided intelligence that the Secret Service used to take down Garantex.
Besides analytics providers, the agency has also tapped crypto exchanges and stablecoin issuers to help seize assets.
Coinbase and OKX both acknowledged assisting in the investigation into the money laundering network. Meanwhile, Tether was called upon to freeze the USDT.
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