Crypto exchanges Binance, Coinbase join West Africa scam sweep that flagged $11 million
Private-sector partners flagged $11 million in funds that could be frozen, while officials reported cryptocurrency seizures without disclosing their value.
Authorities in Ghana and Nigeria arrested 28 people in a crackdown on West African scam networks that included cryptocurrency investment fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
The operation also identified 117 trafficking victims in Ghana who were awaiting repatriation to Nigeria, according to the U.K.'s National Crime Agency (NCA), and saw private companies identify more than $11 million in funds that could be frozen.
Partners also reported cryptocurrency seizures but did not disclose their value or the assets involved. The $11 million represents funds flagged for a possible freeze, not confirmed recoveries.
The NCA hosted the operation that brought tech firms and authorities together, to target networks targeting people in the U.S., U.K. and other countries. The DOJ described it as the first such joint operation focused on West Africa.
Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance participated alongside blockchain analytics firms Chainalysis, Elliptic and TRM Labs. Coinbase said it helped trace illicit funds, support asset freezes and provide intelligence to investigators. It identified more than 65 active scam victims and prevented more than $415,000 in potential losses. TRM Labs said it exposed a large-scale peer-to-peer laundering network.
In Sasaabi, near Accra, Ghanaian authorities arrested 19 people and seized 303 electronic devices. Nine more people were arrested in Nigeria.
Social media giat Meta said it removed more than 3.7 million Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups, most of which appeared to target Americans and Britons through impersonation.
Participants also provided law enforcement with leads on more than 30 suspected scam centers.
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Asanat Analysis — Why it matters
Binance and Coinbase's participation in West African financial crime investigations signals deepening regulatory integration between major CEX operators and law enforcement. The $11 million flagged represents coordinated AML/CFT protocols working as designed—exchanges identifying suspicious flows and freezing assets pre-seizure. This normalizes crypto platforms as first-line enforcement partners rather than obstacles, reducing friction between institutional finance and DeFi.
The absence of disclosed seizure values is notable: it suggests either ongoing investigations or jurisdictional complications in asset recovery. West Africa has become a scam-origination hotspot partly because traditional banking infrastructure is sparse, making crypto-native fraud more prevalent. These sweeps create precedent for cross-border crypto asset recovery but also risk incentivizing regulatory arbitrage—scammers shifting to exchanges with weaker compliance.
For the sector, this reflects maturation: major exchanges now operate as quasi-financial intelligence units. However, the selective disclosure pattern (flagged amounts public, seizures opaque) hints at potential reputation management or technical barriers in cross-jurisdictional asset handling. Sustained enforcement effectiveness depends on whether seized assets are actually repatriated or enter regulatory limbo.