Brazilian police seize $1.7M in crypto from phishing ring’s wallets

Brazilian police have pulled US$1,708,534 in crypto out of self-custody wallets linked to a phishing ring. The Civil Police of Santa Catarina (PCSC) seized the funds during Operação ClickFix, which it carried out on September 10, 2026. It is the largest self-custody digital asset recovery Brazilian civil police have made to date. What police actually took The haul was worth approximately R$8.78 million at the time of the seizure. It spread across four assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), TRON (TRX) and Tether (USDT). Authorities released the details publicly between October 7 and 9, 2026, roughly a month after the operation itself. The funds moved out of the group’s wallets in 13 separate transactions. Investigators relied on blockchain tracing tools from Chainalysis to follow and confirm the transfers. The assets then landed in an institutional account at Foxbit, a Brazilian exchange, where they now sit under state custody. Other reports have identified roughly US$218,000 in additional funds. How that amount fits alongside the main seizure figure has not been laid out in the material released so far. Corvettes, frozen accounts and a phishing playbook The crypto was only one piec...