Record US $15 B Bitcoin Seizure Signals Major Financial Fallout for Asia-Pacific Scam Network

The Prince Holding Group, led by Chen Zhi, has suffered the largest cryptocurrency asset forfeiture in U.S. history after the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) launched a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin (≈US $15 billion) held in unhosted wallets tied to the network.  Concurrently, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Prince Group as a transnational criminal organisation, sanctioning 146 entities and cutting access to key financial systems. 

$15 B Bitcoin Seizure

The disruption extends across the Asia-Pacific. In Singapore alone, authorities seized over S$150 million (≈US $115 million) in assets linked to the network.  Financial services, real-estate and crypto sectors tied to Southeast Asia’s “scam economy” now face heightened regulatory and reputational risk — undermining offshore investment flows and prompting regional banks to shore up compliance against illicit financial-flows. The scale of the seizure underscores the increasing vulnerability of digital-asset infrastructures and the cost of regulatory failure.

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