Crypto Giants Unite to Launch ‘Beacon Network’ Kill Switch for Criminal Funds

Major crypto exchanges and payment companies, including Coinbase, Binance, PayPal, Robinhood, Stripe, and Kraken, have united to launch Beacon Network, the first real-time crypto crime response system designed to prevent illicit funds from leaving the blockchain.

The network enables instant alerts when flagged criminal funds arrive at participating platforms, allowing exchanges to freeze deposits before withdrawal and off-ramping occurs.

TRM Labs announced the initiative on August 20, with massive collaboration between over 20 founding members, federal law enforcement agencies, and security researchers, including ZachXBT and Security Alliance.

The system addresses the urgent need for faster detection as criminals move stolen funds through over 10,000 transactions within months, as seen in the $1.5 billion Bybit hack earlier this year.

According to TRM Labs data, at least $47 billion in cryptocurrency has been sent to fraud-related addresses since 2023, while 2025 has become a record year for hacks, with over $2.3 billion stolen.

The network operates through verified investigators flagging criminal addresses, automatic propagation across related wallets, and real-time alerts when tagged funds hit participating exchanges.

The launch comes as crypto criminals have dramatically accelerated their operations, with Global Ledger reporting that hackers now move funds in as little as four seconds after attacks, approximately 75 times faster than average exchange alert systems can respond.

Introducing Beacon Network: The first real-time crypto crime response network. Exchanges, issuers, and law enforcement can now trace funds instantly — and act before criminals cash out.

Learn more: https://t.co/ZtslbTyOfM#BeaconNetwork #TRMLabs pic.twitter.com/IX7MPRntF0

The urgency behind Beacon Network stems from the devastating speed of modern crypto crime, where one in four hacks sees funds thoroughly laundered before any public statement is issued.

Global Ledger’s analysis revealed that the fastest complete laundering process took just 2 minutes 57 seconds from initial breach to final deposit, faster than typical laptop screen timeouts.

In over 68% of crypto attacks, hackers move funds before incidents become publicly known, with only 4.2% of stolen assets ultimately recovered during the first half of 2025.

The average 37-hour delay between fund movement and public reporting creates an insurmountable disadvantage for traditional response methods.

Centralized exchanges have emerged as the primary targets, contributing to more than 54% of total losses during 2025’s first half, as attackers exploit them as high-value single points of failure.

Token contracts accounted for $517.8 million in losses, while personal wallets suffered 11.7% of total damages across the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

North Korea’s Lazarus Group has refined timing strategies, planning fund movements to coincide with normal transaction activity around noon when organizations experience staff transitions and reduced vigilance.

These sophisticated actors execute attacks “planned down to every single swap and transfer,” exploiting operational gaps during lunch breaks and shift changes.

Meanwhile, crypto hack losses surged 27.2% to $142 million in July 2025 alone, with seventeen major security breaches, including the $44.2 million CoinDCX attack through compromised employee credentials and the $42 million GMX re-entrancy exploit.

Earlier this year, Greece’s Hellenic Anti-Money Laundering Authority achieved the country’s first crypto asset freezing by tracing funds from the $1.5 billion Bybit hack, utilizing Chainalysis Reactor tools acquired in 2023.

Greece makes historic first crypto seizure after $1.5B Bybit hack using advanced @chainalysis tools to trace North Korea's Lazarus Group complex laundering schemes.#BybitHack #Greecehttps://t.co/vXuJLlJl8I

The landmark operation established irrefutable on-chain evidence linking seized assets to wallets used in the North Korean-attributed cyber heist.

The international response has yielded mixed results, with 32.78% of stolen Bybit funds remaining traceable nearly five months after the attack. However, 87.47% have now gone dark, and only 5.24% successfully frozen.

Despite coordinated efforts involving 12 organizations and $2.2 million in bounty payments, the majority of stolen assets remain beyond recovery.

Beacon Network addresses these coordination challenges by enabling verified law enforcement agencies from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Australia, and South Korea to flag addresses in real-time.

The system automatically traces flagged funds across blockchains and propagates intelligence to connected services without human intervention.

The network’s focus areas include North Korean IT workers and hack fund disruption, ransomware payment interdiction, terrorism financing prevention, and recovering funds from romance scams and child exploitation.

Founding member exchanges have praised this innovation, particularly noting that it gives them access to real-time intelligence.

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