Some $400 million in bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies have been seized by the U.S. Secret Service over the past decade, creating one of the largest cold storage wallets in the world.
According to information published by Bloomberg on July 5, the Secret Service's Global Investigations Operations Center (GIOC) has tracked funds through open-source tools and digital asset network analysis.
Much of the agency's cryptocurrency stash is in a single cold storage wallet, and is the result of a series of scam investigations.
The work is usually done in cooperation with industry players, with Coinbase and Tether being the companies that have offered the most assistance to US authorities in high-profile cases. This has been achieved through transaction analysis and wallet freezing.
Investigators use domain registrations, blockchain transactions, and VPN errors to identify suspected fraudsters, allowing them to piece together the digital trail of the scam.
Of particular note in this regard was the seizure carried out last June, described as one of the largest ever executed, involving $225 million in USDT .
These funds originate from a cryptocurrency investment fraud and are part of a broader money laundering scheme, which was reported by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.
Much of the money in this case was stolen through so-called romance scams and sextortion, forms of theft that have been on the rise since 2025.
In mid-June, 40,000 USDT were seized in connection with a scam using fake email addresses (phishing). The scammers were posing as Trump's team.
The United States is one of the countries with the largest bitcoin holdings. Source: Buy Bitcoin Worldwide.
Regarding this, the Secret Service explains that it is most common for cryptocurrencies to be seized from individuals or companies that generally operate with so-called pyramid schemes and exit scams, attracting people to seemingly legitimate cryptocurrency investment platforms.
"Victims often make initial profits before the sites disappear with their deposits," the report notes.
Until now, the Secret Service has focused on jurisdictions with little oversight, allowing them to track those who take advantage of the lack of regulation to commit these types of crimes and make large seizures.
The strategy has helped the U.S. government accumulate a significant amount of cryptocurrency, which will now be incorporated into the national reserve that Donald Trump plans to implement.
According to statistics from Buy Bitcoin Worldwide, the US government currently holds 207,189 BTC. While a government audit remains to be confirmed as accurate, data from recent cryptocurrency seizures suggests this amount continues to rise.
