Catenaa, Thursday, June 05, 2025-The US Treasury Department has sanctioned a Philippine-based technology firm accused of facilitating more than $200 million in cryptocurrency scams, the latest move by federal authorities to curb the growing threat of digital fraud.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday imposed sanctions on Funnull Technology Inc. and its administrator, Liu Lizhi.
According to the agency, the firm provided technical services that enabled the execution of so-called “pig butchering” schemes—long-term scams where perpetrators build trust with victims before luring them into fraudulent crypto investments.
Funnull allegedly acquired IP addresses from global cloud service providers and sold them to cybercriminals to host fraudulent platforms and malicious websites.
The company also reportedly used automated systems to generate thousands of look-alike domains, allowing scammers to impersonate trusted financial brands and avoid takedown efforts.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said the sanctions highlight the department’s continued effort to dismantle the infrastructure behind crypto-enabled cybercrime.
The FBI identified Funnull as being linked to the highest number of scam-related crypto investment websites reported to federal authorities. The average victim loss in these schemes is estimated at $150,000.
Pig butchering scams surged in 2024, with illicit crypto revenues climbing nearly 40% year-over-year, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.
US law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service and FDIC, have issued repeated alerts and made multiple arrests related to such scams.
