sei

According to Bits.media, a large illegal cryptocurrency mining operation was discovered in the city of Nizhny Tagil in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, and the nearby city of Kushva. The mining operation was hidden in an abandoned industrial park and deployed about 10,000 mining machines, which were dismantled by a joint operation of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the police, and the power company.Local power companies estimate that the losses caused by the long-term illegal electricity usage of this mining operation amount to nearly 1 billion rubles (approximately 12.7 million USD). Investigators stated that its electricity consumption was sufficient to meet the lighting needs of a small city. Law enforcement has arrested three suspects, who are currently under house arrest and are being investigated for "causing property damage through deception or abuse of trust." Under Russian law, those involved could face up to 5 years in prison.Investigations revealed that the operators of the mining site accessed the power grid through intermediaries and allegedly tampered with electricity meter data to cover up the actual electricity usage. Law enforcement agencies stated that the actual electricity consumption of the mining operation was about twice the approved quota. The local energy department initially launched an investigation due to frequent voltage fluctuations, power outages, and equipment failures in the abandoned factory area, ultimately pinpointing the location of the mining operation. A local television station also produced a documentary titled "Mining" to document this operation.

According to Infobae, 10 judicial departments in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina coordinated a large-scale operation with security forces from various locations, which included 90 simultaneous raids. The operation resulted in the arrest of 24 individuals and the seizure of over 8 million USDT and nearly 60 million dollars in cash. Additionally, 80 mobile phones, computers, tablets, and processors were confiscated.The case investigates alleged investment fraud, which is believed to have caused losses of nearly 3 billion dollars. The coordination of this operation was handled by the Crypto Assets Assistance and Coordination Group of the Buenos Aires Attorney General's Office. According to the group's report, the seized amount exceeded the previous record held by this specialized group: during the RainbowEx operation in 2024, over 2 million dollars were seized.

According to The Block, the United States has seized approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrency assets from Iran, nearly double the government's previous estimate. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Basset stated on Friday at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum that the U.S. believes Iran is stealing about $400 million to $500 million per month by evading sanctions. "I believe we have seized about $1 billion of their cryptocurrency," he said. "We have directly confiscated their wallets. Some of them may be inputting information right now, but they may not realize that their wallets have already been confiscated." On April 29, Basset stated that the U.S. had seized "nearly $500 million" in Iranian cryptocurrency assets.

Sei releases the next-generation protocol upgrade "Giga" roadmap, planning to significantly enhance transaction performance by restructuring the execution client, state management, and consensus mechanism. Core upgrades include: Ares execution client (optimizing performance through pipelined execution and asynchronous processing); Eidos state management (replacing the Merkle tree with a flat key-value store, separating hot data from cold archives); Autobahn consensus mechanism (targeting 200,000 TPS and 400 milliseconds finality, with the internal test network already achieving 5 Gigagas processing capability); Sedna private memory pool (introducing a cryptographic transaction propagation mechanism); and gradually phasing out Cosmos SDK and CosmWasm through SIP-3, transitioning to a pure EVM architecture.

According to OnchainLens monitoring, the U.S. government has transferred approximately $1.9 million worth of cryptocurrency and $2.656 million in DAI from the seized funds of FTX Alameda to Coinbase. The assets involved include UNI, RNDR, SAND, MASK, AXS, and APE.

Binance is expected to suspend the token deposit and withdrawal services for Sei (SEI) network on June 1 at 16:00 to support its migration to the SEIEVM network. After the migration is completed, Sei (SEI) tokens will only support deposits and withdrawals through the SEIEVM network.

According to Livecoins, the property crime investigation department DEIC of São Paulo, Brazil, in collaboration with the electricity company CPFL Piratininga, conducted an operation that seized approximately 1,400 Bitcoin mining machines suspected of operating with stolen electricity. It is estimated that the amount of stolen electricity is enough to supply about 2,000 households for a month. Although Bitcoin mining is not illegal in Brazil, the focus of the actions by CPFL and DEIC is on the theft of electricity.

According to Zhejiang Daily, recently, the Ningbo Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau successfully dismantled multiple criminal gangs smuggling virtual currency "mining machines" through in-depth operations and meticulous investigations, effectively cutting off an illegal industrial chain.Previously, during a routine inspection of a batch of imported express shipments declared as "industrial blockers," Ningbo Customs discovered that the actual goods did not match the declaration and were, in fact, virtual currency "mining machines." Customs officers quickly transferred this lead to the anti-smuggling department. After receiving the report, the Ningbo Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau immediately assembled a task force by drawing on elite personnel, and through data analysis and clue investigation, gradually clarified the organizational structure and operational model of the criminal network. When the timing was right, they decisively struck, simultaneously conducting net-seizing operations in Dongguan, Shenzhen, and other locations, successfully dismantling multiple smuggling gangs of mining machines.Upon investigation, it was confirmed that this series of cases seized over 400 illegal entry mining machines of brands such as Ant L9 and Ice River KS3. The investigation revealed that the smuggling gang led by Liao, in order to make illegal profits, procured "mining machines" from overseas suppliers, disassembled the whole machines, and misreported the product names to smuggle them into the country through international express channels from ports in Ningbo, Guangzhou, and other places. After the goods entered the country, the gang reassembled them, either selling them directly domestically or transporting them to hidden "mining sites" in Xinjiang, Hunan, and other places to engage in illegal virtual currency "mining" activities. At the same time, they utilized virtual currencies like USDT for cross-border payment settlements to evade financial supervision.

According to Arkham monitoring, the U.S. government transferred 319 ETH, 643,000 DAI, and 290,000 USDT from the seized funds of FTX Alameda to Coinbase Prime.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, the U.S. government sent 319 ETH (approximately $673,000) and $933,774 worth of USDT, DAI, and USDC from the seized funds of FTX Alameda to Coinbase.

According to Hongxing News, the police in Linyi, Shandong recently dismantled a telecom fraud gang targeting minors, seizing about 140,000 yuan in illegal gains and 20,000 in virtual currency on site. Preliminary investigations have confirmed that the gang has carried out over 200 fraud cases nationwide, involving a huge amount of money.The police disclosed that the criminal gang used "free game skins and equipment" as bait to lure minors into using their parents' phones and remotely controlling the victims' devices through screen sharing to carry out transfer fraud. The stolen money was then laundered in batches through methods such as mobile phone top-ups, electricity bills, and property fee payments. The upstream fraud platform settled funds through virtual currency, and the suspects took about 20% of the fraud amount as their share. It is reported that the gang leader had previously traveled to Myanmar to engage in fraudulent activities and has strong counter-investigation experience. The case is still under further investigation.

According to the Zhejiang Daily, the Ningbo Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau in Zhejiang, China, recently cracked multiple cases of smuggling virtual currency mining machines, dismantling several criminal gangs and seizing over 400 mining machines of models such as Ant L9 and Ice River KS3.The report states that the involved gangs misrepresented the mining machines as "industrial block devices" and smuggled them into the country through international express channels from ports in Ningbo, Guangzhou, and other locations. They then reassembled the machines and sold them domestically or transported them to mining sites in Xinjiang, Hunan, and other areas for hosting and mining.Investigators stated that the relevant gangs also used USDT for cross-border payment settlements to evade financial regulation.

Binance Research released a report stating that cryptocurrencies are not a haven for illegal finance. In 2025, approximately 11% of illegal cryptocurrency transaction volume was seized, which is about 55 times the recovery rate of fiat currency. This data comes from public reports by organizations such as Tether, Interpol, and T3 Financial Crime Unit, rather than estimates from a single entity.For reference, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that less than 1% of illegal fiat currency transaction volume is seized globally each year. Even excluding the Prince Group case (involving approximately $15 billion in Bitcoin), the remaining cryptocurrency seizures in 2025 are still about 10 times that of the traditional financial system. Additionally, SlowMist and PeckShield tracked that the proportion of stolen funds recovered or frozen in 2025 was between 8.3% and 13.2%. This reflects the rapid event response and close coordination among exchanges, issuers, and law enforcement agencies.The report concludes that cryptocurrency crime has not been resolved. However, the view that cryptocurrencies are particularly prone to fostering illegal activities is gradually being misunderstood.

Binance Research released a report stating that crypto assets are not a "safe haven for illegal funds." In 2025, approximately 11% of illegal fund flows in the global crypto sector have been seized or frozen, which is about 55 times the recovery rate of traditional fiat currency systems.The report pointed out that this data is derived from public law enforcement and freezing actions by institutions such as Tether, Interpol, and T3 Financial Crime Unit, rather than statistics from a single regulatory agency. At the same time, compared to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated recovery rate of less than 1% for illegal funds in the traditional financial system, the tracking and recovery efficiency in the crypto sector is significantly higher.The research also mentioned that even after excluding a single large case (involving about $15 billion in Bitcoin related to the Prince Group), the remaining crypto asset recovery rate in 2025 is still about 10 times that of the traditional financial system. Additionally, data from SlowMist and PeckShield shows that in 2025, approximately 8.3% to 13.2% of stolen crypto assets were successfully recovered or frozen, reflecting improved efficiency in security response and collaboration among exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and law enforcement agencies.The report concluded that while the issue of crypto crime still exists, the view that "crypto assets are inherently more suitable for illegal activities" is being weakened by on-chain transparency and regulatory collaboration capabilities.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. law firm Charles Gerstein has filed a petition in the Manhattan federal court, requesting an order for Tether to transfer over $344 million of frozen USDT to victims holding judgments against Iran for unpaid terrorism claims. These USDT were previously frozen by Tether after the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control identified the related Tron wallets as belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran.The plaintiffs argue that since OFAC has designated the relevant wallets as owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Tether has frozen the related tokens, Tether can fully reissue an equivalent amount of USDT to a wallet controlled by the victims' attorney. This case is part of a broader legal strategy by Charles Gerstein aimed at leveraging the ability of crypto platforms to freeze and transfer digital assets to enforce terrorism-related judgments. Unlike the Arbitrum case involving North Korean-linked hacker funds, in this case, OFAC has clearly designated the relevant wallets as owned

According to News1, the Korean National Tax Service is piloting the custody and management of seized virtual assets by entrusting them to private cryptocurrency custody institutions for the first time, with plans to run a trial until the end of this year.Major custody institutions in Korea, such as KODA, KDAC, Hecto WalletOne, BDACS, and InfiniteBlock, are all prepared to participate. Although the budget for this pilot project is only about $5,800, the industry believes that obtaining a reference case from the "Korean National Tax Service project" is of symbolic significance.

According to Crypto.news, the New South Wales police in Australia seized 52.3 bitcoins, worth approximately 5.7 million Australian dollars (4.1 million US dollars), in a law enforcement operation targeting the dark web market, making it one of the largest dark web cryptocurrency seizures in the country.This operation is part of the Strike Force Andalusia investigation that began in September 2024 and lasted 15 months. The police tracked a large bitcoin wallet holding proceeds from the dark web market, ultimately identifying two male suspects, aged 39 and 41, who are accused of supplying prohibited drugs and transferring over 100,000 Australian dollars in dark web-related cryptocurrency.

The New South Wales police in Australia seized 52.3 bitcoins, worth approximately 5.7 million AUD (about 4.1 million USD), during a 15-month investigation and arrested two suspects allegedly operating a dark web market in Ingleburn, Sydney.The police stated that the seized bitcoins are suspected to be related to illegal activities on the dark web associated with drug and weapon trafficking. This operation was carried out by the state crime command's cyber crime unit, Strike Force Andalusia, and is considered one of the largest cryptocurrency seizures related to the dark web in Australia. Meanwhile, AUSTRAC has recently strengthened its anti-money laundering regulations for domestic virtual asset service providers and cryptocurrency trading platforms.