Binance announced on its official website that its Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) assisted the Philippine law enforcement agencies in successfully tracking the cryptocurrency ransom involved in the kidnapping case of Guo Congyuan, totaling about $3.75 million (approximately 220 million pesos). This move not only highlights the transparency of digital assets but also marks the key role of public-private cooperation in combating international financial crimes.
Ransom Transfer Path Revealed: Casinos and Crypto Intertwined
According to the analysis by Binance FIU, the kidnappers initially collected the ransom (priced in pesos and dollars) through electronic wallets in local casino VIP rooms, then split and converted the funds into cryptocurrencies, and laundered them through multiple anonymous wallets.
Subsequently, this cryptocurrency flowed into accounts of a series of VASPs (Virtual Asset Service Providers) including unregistered casino intermediaries "Jiuding Group" and "White Horse Club", and began to disperse to more addresses.
This mixed laundering path has strong concealment, greatly disrupting traditional investigative methods, but Binance FIU precisely identified key addresses through blockchain on-chain analysis tools, effectively uncovering the path of the scam funds.
Rise of Public-Private Collaboration Model: Freezing and Tracking Go Hand in Hand
Binance FIU, relying on on-chain investigation, tracked the key wallet accounts where the ransom flowed into, and assisted the authorities in freezing over $3.5 million in involved cryptocurrency assets. This collaborative action sets a precedent for the ongoing expansion of digital crime issues, highlighting:
Digital currency on-chain records have unique traceability advantages, which can compensate for the deficiencies of the traditional financial system in cross-border evidence collection;
Private companies like Binance demonstrate rapid response capabilities in dealing with complex crimes, including timely data sharing, on-chain freezing mechanisms, and multi-platform regulatory cooperation;
However, without a regulatory cooperation framework or support from other platforms, such tracking actions are difficult to generalize, and small trading platforms may not have the necessary capabilities.
Although a large amount of the ransom in this case has been tracked, recovering the funds still presents significant challenges:
The ransom was repeatedly chopped and transferred across chains, causing some funds to escape the tracking range, with only about 205,500 USDT frozen, and the remaining approximately 1.4 million USDT successfully flowed out;
Some of the cryptocurrency funds have been remotely transferred to jurisdictions of crypto platforms in Cambodia and others;
Even if frozen, legal procedures are required to unfreeze and return the funds, which are complex and time-consuming:
The Philippine police once pointed out that once the ransom enters the digital asset and cross-border transfer system, if it cannot be frozen immediately, its recovery is almost hopeless.
The case exposes a "new industrial chain" of money laundering combining cryptocurrency with casino intermediaries. Data from the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council shows that financial institutions suffered losses of up to 5.82 billion pesos due to cybercrime in just 2024.
Casino intermediary accounts and electronic wallets run rampant, unregistered and inadequately regulated;
The US dollar stablecoin USDT is widely used by launderers due to its anonymous cross-chain characteristics;
The compliance and regulatory implementation of VASPs are uneven, with some located in offshore countries lacking regulation, making it difficult to trace funds.
Future Outlook: Can Technical Collaboration Become Normalized?
Binance FIU's participation in this disclosure is actually a demonstration of the "public-private collaboration" model for combating financial crimes in the future, but sustainability still poses challenges:
Establishing a clear legal obligation for cross-national collaboration mechanisms is crucial: requiring more platforms to take responsibility for data sharing and asset freezing, and establishing information channels across judicial systems;
Developing local law enforcement's on-chain investigation capabilities: Countries like the Philippines need to invest in or cooperate in building blockchain tracking departments to autonomously identify suspicious flows;
Enhancing VASP regulation and market access: Abandoning the loose management status quo, building a unified, transparent, and compliant licensing and risk control system.
Conclusion
Although the recovery of the ransom in the Guo Congyuan kidnapping case was limited due to the highly dispersed funds, Binance FIU's timely response, anti-tracking on-chain analysis, and cooperation with the police have established an important model for cracking international financial crimes. This also reminds the world: although crypto finance brings convenience, it is not beyond accountability; if governments and platforms strengthen regulation and technical cooperation together, blockchain can no longer be a tool for crime, but can become an aid to justice.
