Building Trust Through Action: How OKX Works with Law Enforcement Worldwide

By Linda A. Lacewell, Global Chief Legal Officer, OKX

I never imagined my years as a federal prosecutor and later as Superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services would be so relevant in crypto. Yet, here I am drawing on lessons from those roles every day, and realizing they apply more than ever.

The efforts behind our work tell the story. In 2024 alone, we responded to more than 33,000 law enforcement requests from over 1,000 agencies in more than 100 jurisdictions. That’s up 30% from the year before. About 7% of those requests came from the U.S., but the work spanned the globe. Those aren’t vanity metrics. They’re proof that we are doing the hard, often invisible, work of building trust in this space and keeping bad actors out.

Action Over Assumptions

Still, too often today crypto is still painted as a lawless frontier where criminals hide behind anonymous wallets. In reality, digital assets leave clear, verifiable trails from digital footprints to signatures and public transaction details that allow investigators and AML experts to track illicit activity with precision.

Earlier this month, we joined Beacon Network, the first real-time crypto crime response network founded by TRM Labs. It connects vetted investigators, exchanges, and stablecoin issuers to share intelligence and block illicit cash-outs before they happen. Alongside other exchanges, we’ll work with law enforcement to proactively disrupt criminal activity in real time, closing the gaps bad actors try to exploit.

Real Cases, Real Impact

Our commitment to enforcement isn’t theoretical and it's been proven in high-impact cases around the world. Most recently, an overseas affiliate of OKX worked with the U.S. Secret Service on its largest-ever seizure of $225 million in stolen digital assets.

Then there’s the $47 million “pig butchering” scam we helped dismantle this year — one of the most deceptive forms of investment fraud. Criminals posed as legitimate investors, gained victims’ trust, and convinced them to transfer funds. Working alongside Chainalysis, Tether, and an Asia-based law enforcement agency, we traced stolen USDT across multiple wallets to a single $46.9 million consolidation point. By June 2024, law enforcement and Tether froze the stolen funds, beginning the process of returning them to victims.

Cases like these aren’t easy. They require technical skill, global cooperation, and the willingness to act fast when the evidence is there.

Building the Standard, Not Waiting for It

We’re not waiting for perfect conditions or for someone else to lead. We’re doing the work now with the technology, partnerships, and people to back it up.

Like the industry itself, OKX US has matured over several years, devoting significant resources to building its business responsibly in the U.S. alongside a state-of-the-art compliance program. As of June 2025, in addition to thousands of professionals around the globe, OKX US has over 500 employees in the U.S., including global leadership with longstanding records in government service.

Across the globe, our team spans more than 120 legal and 475 compliance employees in Financial Crimes Compliance, token listing, transaction monitoring, trade compliance, market surveillance, and regulatory compliance to name a few.

We know innovation moves faster than headlines, and that those who act will always face more scrutiny than those who sit still. That’s fine. We’d rather build than wait.Because in the end, the real risk isn’t moving too fast — it’s doing nothing at all. And in crypto, as in government, inaction never built trust.

Let’s keep raising the standard.