World’s Largest Crypto Seizure Nets £5.5 Billion in Bitcoin

The Metropolitan Police in the United Kingdom have confirmed the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history, valued at more than £5.5 billion ($7.39 billion USD). 

The landmark case concluded in late September 2025 with guilty pleas from two individuals linked to a massive Bitcoin fraud and laundering scheme.

The fraud scheme

At the center of the case is Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, a 47-year-old Chinese national accused of orchestrating a multibillion-pound fraud in China between 2014 and 2017.

Authorities say Qian defrauded more than 128,000 victims — most between 50 and 75 years old — by promising guaranteed daily dividends and lucrative profits on fake investment schemes. Once victims invested their funds, the money was converted into Bitcoin and moved offshore.

In 2017, Qian fled China using forged travel documents and entered the U.K. A year later, she attempted to launder the illicit Bitcoin by purchasing property in London, assisted by her accomplice Jian Wen. Surveillance by the Met later uncovered her connections to another associate, Hok Seng Ling, which helped track Qian’s movements across Scotland and York before her arrest in April 2024.

The record-breaking seizure

The investigation, which began in 2018 after intelligence flagged the transfer of criminal assets, led to the seizure of 61,000 Bitcoin from Qian’s possession. At the time, the assets were valued at £5.5 billion, though subsequent market shifts placed them at nearly £11 million in liquidated and related assets, including cash, gold, and additional cryptocurrency.

Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, who led the investigation, described the effort as “years of painstaking work” requiring collaboration across borders, jurisdictions, and thousands of documents.  

Legal outcomes

On Sept. 29, 2025, Qian pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to acquiring and possessing criminal property under the Proceeds of Crime Act (2002).

One day later, Ling also entered a guilty plea for transferring criminal property. Wen had previously been convicted in May 2024 and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for assisting in laundering operations involving 150 Bitcoin. In January 2025, Wen was ordered to pay back £3.1 million or face additional prison time.

The convictions, authorities said, marked the culmination of a seven-year investigation into international money laundering.  

Parallel international crackdowns

The historic seizure coincided with Operation Contender 3.0, a multinational crackdown on cyber-enabled crime coordinated by INTERPOL across 14 African nations. Between July 28 and Aug. 11, 2025, authorities arrested 260 suspects and dismantled 81 cybercrime infrastructures involved in romance scams and sextortion schemes.

The operation targeted transnational criminal groups exploiting social media and digital platforms to manipulate victims into sending money or explicit images. INTERPOL reported that 1,463 victims lost an estimated $2.8 million to these schemes, underscoring the global nature of online fraud. Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Angola carried out the bulk of the arrests, while investigators seized over 1,200 electronic devices, forged IDs, SIM cards, and USB drives used in the scams.

Private sector firms including Group-IB and Trend Micro contributed intelligence on perpetrators, including payment data linked to extortion attempts.  

Lessons for cybersecurity teams

Taken together, these developments highlight the widening scope of cyber-enabled crime — from billion-dollar crypto laundering operations to everyday digital scams.

The U.K. bust demonstrates how cryptocurrencies, though decentralized and pseudonymous, are increasingly scrutinized as vehicles for money laundering. Meanwhile, INTERPOL’s findings in Africa show how low-tech scams like romance fraud remain highly profitable and psychologically damaging.

For security teams, the cases emphasize several key lessons:

• Cryptocurrency risk is enterprise risk. Even as financial institutions tighten compliance frameworks, cryptocurrencies remain a preferred channel for laundering illicit funds. Organizations tied to financial services or large-scale transactions must heighten blockchain analytics and fraud detection efforts.
• Cross-border cooperation is vital. Both the Met Police seizure and INTERPOL operation relied on intelligence-sharing across agencies, jurisdictions, and private firms. International cybercrime rarely stops at borders, making partnerships indispensable.
• Human factors remain exploitable. Whether through phishing, romance scams, or investment fraud, criminals prey on trust and urgency. Awareness training and incident reporting remain critical defenses.
• Technology can cut both ways. AI-powered phishing, cloud-based laundering, and deepfakes increase the attack surface, but the same technologies can be leveraged to track, trace, and disrupt criminal networks.

The conviction of Zhimin Qian and her associates not only represents the largest cryptocurrency seizure in history but also demonstrates how law enforcement, when backed by sustained international cooperation, can dismantle even the most sophisticated financial fraud schemes. 

For security teams, the message is clear: today’s cyber threats span from multibillion-dollar Bitcoin frauds to everyday social engineering scams. Defenses must adapt accordingly, blending strong technical safeguards with global intelligence and human awareness.