freeze

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has released a proposed announcement to suspend the acceptance of new applications for registration of payment system operators (OPS) for 12 months and to implement stricter controls on payment arrangements involving virtual asset service providers (VASP). The BSP stated that this move aims to conduct a comprehensive review of its classification and licensing framework.According to the draft, during the suspension period, the BSP will stop accepting and processing OPS applications. Applications submitted prior to the suspension can continue to be evaluated, but will not be approved or rejected until the suspension ends. Relevant entities are prohibited from conducting business activities that require OPS registration unless they obtain special authorization from the regulatory agency. In addition, BSP-regulated entities providing merchant acquiring services must connect licensed VASPs through direct merchant arrangements, and such relationships will be subject to enhanced due diligence, transaction and settlement limits, and other risk control measures.This requirement applies to virtual asset enterprises licensed, registered, or authorized by the BSP, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines, or other regulatory agencies, with VASPs being categorized alongside betting, gaming, adult industry, and money service businesses. If the draft is ultimately approved, it will take effect 15 days after publication, and the BSP is currently seeking public comments.

Protocol Watch founder Christine D. Kim stated that Bitcoin Core v32 has completed feature freeze on August 20, and developers are currently focusing on bug fixes and small optimizations, with the official version expected to be released in October this year.The main updates in v32 include increasing block validation speed by up to approximately 3 times through multi-CPU core parallel processing; introducing a global transaction queue and rate limiting to improve node stability during sudden surges in transaction volume; and adding a fee estimation mechanism based on Mempool status to reduce overestimation of fees. This update does not involve changes to the protocol rules at the Bitcoin network level.

The Irish National Police (An Garda Síochána) reported that during a special operation against organized crime in the Galway area, police searched two properties and froze two cryptocurrency accounts worth approximately $900,000 in total. In addition, the police also froze a bank account containing €25,000 (approximately $29,100), and seized €9,300 in cash and drugs valued at approximately €18,300 (including amphetamines and cannabis).A man in his 40s involved in the case has been arrested and charged, and the investigation is ongoing.

The Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) has ordered the freezing of approximately SGD 75 million worth of Bitcoin and USD Coin, involving a transfer dispute between a global major cryptocurrency exchange operator (the plaintiff and related companies) and a long-term customer. In a ruling made in March 2026 by Singapore High Court Judge Aidan Xu and SICC international judges Anthony Meagher and David Goddard, the court granted the plaintiff a temporary injunction, prohibiting the defendant from disposing of 816,773 USDC and 780 BTC transferred from two dedicated wallets on the platform and the corresponding profits, and required the defendant to disclose the whereabouts of the assets, but did not allow the plaintiff to use that information to apply for similar injunctions in other jurisdictions.The defendant had held 2,500 BTC and 2,500 BCH in the dedicated wallet. The plaintiff claimed that due to technical reasons, the internal ledger did not record the defendant's transfer operation in March 2020, and the wallet appeared empty. Based on this misunderstanding, the plaintiff transferred 2,500 BTC and 2,500 BCH to the defendant's other wallet in July 2024. The defendant subsequently exchanged 20 BTC for approximately 816,773 USDC and transferred it along with 780 BTC to a non-plaintiff custodial wallet between July and November 2024. After discovering the ledger error in January 2025, the plaintiff froze the defendant's wallet and recovered the remaining 1,700 BTC and 2,500 BCH.

Harmony stated that it is collaborating with internal teams and relevant exchanges to attempt to stop and freeze the flow of related funds. A patch and rollback plan are also being developed. Further information will be updated in a timely manner.

According to CryptoSlate, the proposed amendment to the "Civil Execution Rules" by the Supreme Court of South Korea will establish standardized procedures allowing creditors to freeze, identify, and liquidate virtual assets held by debtors. The court may require exchanges to disclose the types and quantities of cryptocurrency assets held by the debtor within seven days of receiving the order and freeze the corresponding assets.The deadline for public comments on the proposal is August 11, and it is expected to take effect on October 1. Once the assets are identified and frozen, the court may designate them for allocation to creditors or order liquidation, to be executed by virtual asset service providers.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has filed a civil lawsuit against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, its intelligence agency Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB), and the state-sanctioned hacking organization Lazarus Group, involving a $1.5 billion hacking incident.A U.S. federal court has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the transfer or dissipation of identified assets related to the case during the litigation period.

FlashRescue co-founder @DarcyAri posted on the X platform that recently, during a joint investigation with partners on a case, Tether experienced a transfer of funds from one address during the execution of a proposal to freeze addresses, resulting in a decrease in the frozen amount. Further review by FlashRescue revealed that this is not an isolated incident. As of August 3, 2026, through an analysis of 2,955 Tether freeze events on the Ethereum and Tron networks, it was found that among addresses involved in risks such as entity sanctions, fraudulent activities, money laundering, FATF blacklist jurisdictions, and malicious attacks: 60 addresses cleared their assets and completed front-running transfers before the formal execution of the freeze, with a total net outflow of 20,429,847 USDT, starting transfers an average of 13 minutes and 59 seconds after the freeze proposal was submitted, and completing the main fund transfers within 15 minutes and 15 seconds; additionally, 113 addresses transferred some assets before the freeze was executed, involving approximately 35,524,300 USDT.The average time from the submission of the freeze proposal to the formal execution of the freeze by Tether is 2 hours, 16 minutes, and 15 seconds, indicating a long time window between the public announcement of the freeze proposal and its actual execution. On July 3, a cluster of addresses transferred funds continuously within minutes and then split the transfers to the same address. The above cases suggest that some high-risk addresses may be actively monitoring Tether freeze proposals and utilizing the time difference between the public announcement of the proposal and the actual effectiveness of the freeze to implement front-running transfers. This mechanism leads to the failure of freezing the involved funds and undermines the actual effectiveness of sanctions, anti-money laundering, and law enforcement cooperation measures.

Galaxy Research Research Director Alex Thorn tweeted that among a Coldcard attack victim holding nearly 30 BTC, 17 BTC were split and converted to ETH via THORChain, and then deposited into the offshore betting platform Duel.com.Upon tracking, this portion of funds corresponds to approximately 229.72 ETH (worth about $445,000). The victim and the research team have emailed all known addresses of Duel.com, providing all transaction and deposit information and requesting to freeze the funds, but the response stated that the victim should have the police contact them, even though the platform's anti-money laundering policy claims it implements KYC and complies with relevant laws.Thorn stated that this response is unacceptable, and most of the Western regions have passed midnight, meaning the police report cannot be advanced until at least Monday; he believes that if the platform refuses to freeze the funds after receiving notification that they originated from an ongoing cyber attack, it constitutes complicity in theft.Since Duel.com's X account has been banned, Thorn turned to @ several individuals associated with the platform, urging them to push the platform to take the correct actions, and stated that if the funds are not frozen, the platform will face significant legal action.

According to Digital Asset, on July 28, 15 members of South Korea's People Power Party, including Kim Sang-hoon, proposed an amendment to the Specific Financial Information Act, allowing financial authorities to request the suspension of payments for virtual asset accounts suspected of being used for illegal asset transfers.The amendment defines "account" as a unique identification number provided by exchanges to users. The Financial Intelligence Analysis Institute can request a suspension of payments for 30 days when an account is deemed suspicious, which can be extended once. Those who do not comply may face fines of up to 100 million won. The bill will take effect six months after its announcement.

Bitcoin News posted on the X platform stating that a lawsuit accuses BitMEX of seizing 622 bitcoins through server freezes and internal trading before its closure.

The Brazilian Federal Police are cracking down on a drug trafficking gang that has been laundering money through cryptocurrency in Operation Commodity. Since 2021, the gang has smuggled over 6.5 tons of cocaine to Europe via the Port of Rio de Janeiro, with the drugs hidden in shipments of coffee, cement, and mortar.The operation covered São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, and Espírito Santo, with police executing 13 preventive arrests and 44 search and seizure warrants. The court ordered the seizure of assets and the freezing of up to 1 billion reais, approximately 196 million dollars. Police stated that the gang is linked to Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV), and laundered money through a luxury car dealership and shell companies in the Greater São Paulo area, with the dealership selling vehicles such as Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette, and Land Rover.The individuals involved used shell companies to issue invoices lacking supporting documents, bringing drug trafficking proceeds into the Brazilian financial system and using cryptocurrency to conceal transactions. The suspects will be held accountable for charges including transnational organized crime, international drug trafficking, and money laundering.

According to Jinshi reports, EU diplomats stated that representatives from the EU agreed to freeze the oil price cap for 12 months in the 21st round of sanctions against Russia.

Midnight Foundation posted on platform X that the Wanchain Cardano BNB cross-chain bridge has experienced a security attack. Currently, several major exchanges, including KuCoin, Kraken, Binance, Bybit, OKX, and MEXC, have quickly responded by taking preventive measures to restrict the flow of stolen assets, including freezing related accounts and addresses, blacklisting the attacker’s wallet, and suspending the deposit and withdrawal services for the NIGHT token.Exchanges have confirmed that this incident is an isolated third-party bridging vulnerability and is unrelated to the Midnight Network mainnet and the NIGHT asset itself.

The U.S. Treasury Department has added four Iranian central bank-related cryptocurrency wallets to the sanctions list, and Tether has frozen $131 million USDT accordingly.This brings the total amount frozen to approximately $475 million.

"On-chain detective" ZachXBT published a case analysis stating that in a cryptocurrency asset case involving an Indian scam gang, the relevant individuals reported the case to law enforcement after their assets were frozen, drawing attention. The incident began when a user sought help, claiming that approximately 5.73 BTC (about $475,000) was frozen on Changelly in March 2025.Subsequent on-chain analysis revealed that these funds could be traced back to multiple social engineering attacks and theft cases related to Bitcoin ATMs targeting U.S. users, with a total amount involved exceeding $1 million and several elderly victims. The investigation showed that the individual provided multiple changing explanations for the source of the funds, including "loan," "boss transfer," and "investment from 2014-2015," and there were significant contradictions in the evidence chain.More concerning is that this user had previously filed a police report in India in December 2025, attempting to recover the frozen funds (case number 3207-P/2025). Subsequent on-chain evidence collection and email data analysis indicated that they might be a "mule" for transferring funds, with some bank documents inconsistent with their identity information. ZachXBT noted that such cases demonstrate that social engineering attacks and cross-border fund transfers continue to occur and remind users to avoid interacting with funds from suspicious sources to prevent triggering compliance freezes or legal risks.

According to monitoring by ZachXBT, the address starting with TA6YHq received 120.2 million USDT on the Tron chain, then transferred over 12 million dollars to a Kucoin deposit address, and moved 8 million dollars to several instant exchanges. This entity created Monero orders, causing its price to briefly surge from 330 dollars to 420 dollars. Additionally, over 8 million dollars was transferred from Tron to Bitcoin and Ethereum via Near Intents.Previously, it was reported that Tether froze 72 million USDT in the address starting with TBzrPE, which is directly related to TA6YHq.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, an address with a balance of 72,030,295 USDT (approximately 71,967,245 USD) has been frozen by Tether.

According to Cointelegraph, Coinbase has frozen over $3 million in cryptocurrency related to a Southeast Asian crypto fraud network. This action is part of the "Disruption Week" initiative led by the U.S. Department of Justice's Fraud Center, aimed at combating crypto fraud targeting American citizens. Meta, Microsoft, and Starlink also participated in this operation, collectively cutting off servers and hosting infrastructure associated with the fraud network, disrupting criminal activities across more than 1.4 million social media and email accounts. The Royal Thai Police's Anti-Fraud Center has carried out multiple arrests. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that investment fraud and pig butchering scams are the fastest-growing and most financially destructive types of fraud targeting Americans. Coinbase stated that blockchain technology provides law enforcement with transparent, immutable, and permanent transaction records that traditional financial systems often cannot offer.