Coinbase said it worked with the U.S. Secret Service to seize about $225 million in the stablecoin Tether (USDT) that investigators allege was stolen through a 2023 “pig-butchering” investment scam. The operation represents the agency’s largest cryptocurrency forfeiture to date, and officials plan to return the funds to victims once a court order is finalized. According to a Coinbase blog post, the exchange’s threat-intelligence team spent roughly four months tracing millions of on-chain transactions, ultimately identifying 39 wallets that still held the bulk of the proceeds after Tether froze them on 20 November 2023. Investigators mapped 130 victim wallets, documenting losses of about $2.3 million across more than 400 people, many of them U.S. residents, who were lured into fraudulent trading apps run by an Asia-based ring. A civil forfeiture complaint unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia shows the Secret Service secured the assets on 18 June. Once a judge signs the forfeiture order, Tether intends to burn the frozen tokens and re-mint an equivalent amount under government control, after which the Justice Department will begin a remission process that typically takes 12 to 24 months to compensate victims.