A major coordinated crackdown on crypto fraud is underway. Dubbed 'Operation Atlantic,' the joint initiative between leading crypto firms and global regulators aims to dismantle sophisticated approval-phishing networks and scam operations, signaling a pivotal shift in industry self-policing and regulatory collaboration.

A Transnational Operation Against Crypto Phishing Scams

Operation Atlantic is a rare case of law enforcement moving in near real time to block scammers before funds fully disappear on‑chain. The operation is a joint UK–US–Canada venture led by the UK’s National Crime Agency and the US Secret Service, targeting crypto investment and “approval phishing” scams. The multiparty operation is also joined by private industry partners like Chainalysis. The blockchain data and analytics company announced the partnership in a yesterday’s post on their website.

As stated by Chainalysis:

Operation Atlantic’s objective is simple but ambitious: spot victims and compromised wallets in real time, freeze and secure illicit funds before they can be laundered through exchanges or services, generate new investigative leads on the fraud networks behind these scams, and lay the groundwork for ongoing investigations based on the intelligence collected during the operation.

The operation, announced last month, has yielded its first striking results.

According to a new report from the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom, more than 20,000 victims have been identified, with over 20,000 wallet addresses flagged and more than $12 million in suspected scam proceeds frozen.

More than $45 million stolen in cryptocurrency fraud schemes has been identified around the world.

The report also highlighted that the operation identified one UK victim that lost more than £52,000 to this type of fraud.

In approval phishing scams, victims are tricked into signing malicious on‑chain approvals that grant the scammers permission to drain tokens directly from their wallets. These attempts are often disguised as investment opportunities or “account security” prompts.

Such tactics are increasingly favored by organized fraud networks because they bypass traditional password theft and rely on users misunderstanding what they are signing.

Just yesterday, our sister website NewsBTC reported that South Korean authorities are rolling out a new standardized withdrawal‑delay across all exchanges in order to prevent damage from phishing scams that depend on speed.

Last month, the Solana memecoin issuance platform Bonk.fun was hichjacked by a phishing scam that set up a fake “Terms of Services” (TOS) signature prompt which, when signed, allowed the drainer to move the unaware user’s funds.

At the beginning of the month, the social network X announced it is in the process of rolling out its toughest anti-crypto scam measure to date, particularly design to combat phishing scams.

As law enforcement becomes more adept at tracing and freezing stolen funds, scam operations will likely move to more complex laundering routes, creating both new tail risks and new on‑chain data signals for sophisticated traders to track.

Cover image from Perplexity. BTCUSDT chart from Tradingview.