An operation by the Civil Police of Santa Catarina located and seized Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and USDT held outside exchanges, in one of the largest phishing scams ever uncovered in the country.

The Civil Police of Santa Catarina confirmed the largest seizure of cryptocurrencies held in self-custody ever recorded by a civil police force in Brazil. Operation ClickFix resulted in the seizure of approximately R$8.8 million in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and USDT, worth close to US$1.71 million at the exchange rate on the day of the operation.

Unlike seizures made on exchanges, where a court order is enough to freeze accounts, the case in Santa Catarina required direct access to wallets that are not dependent on any financial institution. This makes the operation technically more complex and explains why the agency itself highlighted the result.

The investigation combined traditional digital forensics with blockchain-tracking tools provided by Chainalysis. The company, which specializes in analyzing transactions on public blockchains, identified an additional amount of around US$218,000—equivalent to approximately R$1.12 million—linked to the same scheme under investigation using its Wallet Scan tool.

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