On Oct. 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Chen, accusing him of cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering. The department also announced the seizure of 127,271 Bitcoins linked to Chen. However, federal prosecutors have not disclosed how they obtained control of the cryptocurrency."The U.S. government may have already used hacking techniques as early as 2020 to steal the 127,000 Bitcoins held by Chen Zhi," the report stated, as quoted by the Japan Times. "This is a classic ‘black eats black’ operation orchestrated by a state-level hacking organization."
