UK Cops Nab Trio in $20M Crypto Heist—Because Even Scammers Can’t Resist a Bull Market
London’s cybercrime unit just handed crypto scammers their first ’correction’ of 2025—three arrests tied to a slick $20 million digital asset swindle. The suspects allegedly ran a classic ’exit scam,’ proving Ponzi schemes work just as well with blockchain as they did with Bernie Madoff.
How it worked: Promised moon-shot returns, delivered empty wallets. Victims were funneled through fake DeFi platforms—because nothing says ’legit investment’ like an anonymous Telegram admin and a token named after a meme.
The twist? These guys might’ve gotten away with it if they’d just HODL’d. Forensic chain analysis traced the loot to—where else?—a over-the-counter crypto exchange in Dubai. Because when you’re moving illicit gains, why bother with KYC?
Meanwhile in traditional finance: Banks lose 200x this amount to fraud annually, but sure—let’s keep writing headlines about ’risky crypto.’
Crypto crime in the UK
Law enforcement agencies in the UK have been stepping up their efforts against crypto crime in recent years.
The government has granted police forces, as well as the National Crime Agency, greater powers to "seize, freeze and destroy" digital assets used by criminals.
Meanwhile, NCA estimates indicate that illicit crypto transactions worth up to $5.1 billion are linked to the UK every year.
Data from Arkham Intelligence suggests the British government currently holds more than 61,000 BTC seized from criminals, which is now worth in excess of $6.1 billion after the cryptocurrency returned to six-figure territory earlier this week.
But last week, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury confirmed the UK has no plans to follow in Donald Trump’s footsteps by creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Emma Reynolds MP told the Financial Times Digital Asset Summit: "We don’t think that’s appropriate for our market. We understand that’s what the U.S. is going for, but that’s not the plan for us."
The government has faced questions over why it hasn’t sold any of the bitcoin in its custody to bolster the public finances—at a time when a series of controversial welfare cuts, including on winter fuel payments given to pensioners, are being made.
