British authorities have seized cryptocurrency now worth over $5 million from Joseph O’Connor, the hacker convicted for his role in the 2020 Twitter breach that compromised the accounts of high-profile figures like Elon Musk and Barack Obama. The value of the stolen assets has soared since the time of the theft, dramatically increasing the amount O’Connor must forfeit.

Authorities Secure Millions in Forfeited Assets

This week, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) successfully obtained a civil recovery order for the digital assets linked to O’Connor. The seized funds include approximately 42.3 BTC, 235.3 ETH, 143,273 BUSD, and 15.23 USDC. While the initial value of the stolen crypto was about $794,000, market appreciation has pushed its current worth to roughly £4.1 million.

O’Connor, who is currently in Spain, did not contest the forfeiture. He had previously pleaded guilty in the United States to numerous charges, including computer intrusion, wire fraud, money laundering, and extortion. After being extradited from Spain, he was sentenced to five years in a US prison before his deportation earlier this year. The CPS had secured a Property Freezing Order during the extradition process to ensure the cryptocurrency could not be moved.

Bitcoin Surge Amplifies Stolen Funds

The staggering increase in the restitution amount is a direct result of the cryptocurrency market’s performance, particularly Bitcoin’s. Prosecutors noted that with Bitcoin’s price rising to nearly ten times its mid-2020 value, the seized holdings ballooned. A court-appointed trustee will now liquidate the assets.

The 2020 Twitter hack remains one of social media’s most significant security failures. The platform, now known as X, was forced to temporarily lock verified accounts as the scam spread across its user base of over 350 million. Investigators later determined that O’Connor had used crypto accounts opened by two unwitting associates in the UK who were not involved in the fraud.

A Wider Crackdown on Crypto Crime

This case highlights a period of intense focus on digital asset crime from global law enforcement. According to recent data, hackers stole over $3 billion in the first eight months of 2025, already surpassing the total for all of 2024 by 1.5 times. International efforts to combat these schemes are ramping up.

In a separate action, the US Justice Department initiated proceedings in November to seize over $15 million in USDT tied to North Korea’s APT38 hacking group. Europol also dismantled a major cybercrime syndicate that used a large-scale SIM farm to create millions of fake online profiles, including fraudulent accounts on crypto platforms. Despite these alarming trends, recent figures suggest short-term security improvements, with October 2025 being the year’s safest month for the crypto industry, recording an 85% drop in losses from hacks compared to September.