A joint INTERPOL and AFRIPOL operation, Operation Catalyst, has resulted in the arrest of 83 individuals across six African nations. This unprecedented crackdown exposed a massive $562 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme and revealed connections between digital assets and terrorism financing. The investigation spanned from July to September 2025 and involved law enforcement agencies in Nigeria, Angola, Cameroon, Kenya, Namibia, and South Sudan. It involved screening over 15,000 entities and led to the identification of $260 million in suspicious cryptocurrency flows linked to financial crime and potential terrorist funding. Roughly $600,000 in cash and digital assets were seized. Cryptocurrencies played a central role in this investigation, with authorities tracing several high-value wallets associated with the scheme, some connected to terrorism financing networks. INTERPOL issued a Red Notice for one of the operation’s alleged masterminds who remains at large. The agency noted that 18 of the total arrests were directly related to the illicit use of virtual assets. This highlights the growing role of cryptocurrency in both fraud and the funding of extremist activities. Operation Catalyst marks a significant milestone in African financial enforcement, demonstrating how digital forensics, blockchain tracing, and regional intelligence sharing can disrupt complex crypto-financial ecosystems used by criminals and terrorists alike.