UK-led Operation Atlantic froze over $12M in crypto scam proceeds tied to “approval phishing,” identifying 20,000+ victims and $45M in suspected fraud.
Summary
- UK, US and Canadian agencies ran Operation Atlantic, freezing more than $12M in suspected crypto scam proceeds and identifying over 20,000 victims.
- The crackdown targeted “approval phishing,” where victims are tricked into signing malicious on-chain authorizations that let scammers drain wallets.
- Binance and other private firms provided account screening and fraud intelligence support, though no funds were frozen on Binance itself.
UK, US and Canadian law enforcement have frozen more than $12 million in suspected crypto scam proceeds in a coordinated action targeting “approval phishing” schemes that hit over 20,000 victims. The joint effort, dubbed Operation Atlantic and led by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), focused on scams that trick users into signing malicious on‑chain approvals, allowing attackers to drain tokens directly from victims’ wallets. Authorities say total fraud linked to the identified infrastructure exceeds $45 million.
According to the NCA, Operation Atlantic was co‑hosted with the U.S. Secret Service, Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission, and ran as an intensive, week‑long initiative in March. Rather than only tracing funds after the fact, agencies worked to “identify victims who have lost, or were at risk of losing, cryptocurrency through ‘approval phishing’,” securing assets before criminals could move them further down the laundering chain. Chainalysis, which supported the operation, described the approach as targeting “a fast-growing threat: approval phishing scams that trick victims into granting criminals permission to drain their wallets,” and noted that the effort “secured and frozen more than $12 million in suspected criminal proceeds” while mapping over $45 million in stolen crypto tied to related schemes.nationalcrimeagency.
crypto scam funds found
Private sector firms played a visible role. Binance said its Special Investigations team provided on‑site support at the NCA’s London headquarters, including “live account screening and scam intelligence” and the identification of still‑active scam websites, but stressed that “no funds were frozen on Binance as part of the operation.” In a statement supporting the action, Binance called approval phishing “one of the most damaging types of scams targeting crypto users today,” arguing that Operation Atlantic shows “how effective crime fighting is possible when private and public partners move together to stop fraud at the source.” NCA deputy director of investigations Miles Bonfield said the operation “has led to the safeguarding of thousands of victims in the UK and overseas, stopped criminals in their tracks and helped save others from losing their funds,” adding that fraudsters “operate globally and, together with our international partners, so will the NCA to target them wherever they are based.”
While the sums recovered are small relative to the broader crypto market, the operation highlights both the growing sophistication of on‑chain fraud and the increasing willingness of law enforcement and major exchanges to coordinate in near real time. It also underlines a practical lesson for users: the most dangerous transaction is often the one you approve yourself.
