The US Department of Justice has obtained court authorization to seize or prevent the transfer of over $1.2 billion in crypto assets stolen from Binance. The department also announced the seizure of the cloud infrastructure of the North Korea-linked FaceStealer campaign, from which over $400 million in crypto assets were stolen.
The FBI announced that over $6 billion in crypto assets were stolen from Binance on October 29, 2026, and that the North Korea-linked TraderTraitor group was behind the attack. According to the ministry’s statement, over $2.7 billion in assets have been frozen through a joint effort by US authorities and the private sector. This total includes over $1.2 billion covered by a court order. Efforts to locate and recover the stolen assets are ongoing.
In an operation separate from the Binance investigation, US authorities seized the cloud infrastructure used in the FaceStealer campaign. According to the statement, the attackers impersonated people their targets knew or trusted during video calls using deepfake videos and pre-recorded footage. The campaign resulted in the theft of over $400 million in crypto assets over 18 months.
In its investigation into the campaign, which targeted those working in the cryptocurrency and Web3 sectors as well as open-source software developers, the FBI seized more than 900 security camera recordings belonging to the victims.
*This is not investment advice.
