Fraud operations have become more advanced, targeting significantly larger amounts than seen in 2024.
FBI Headquarters Washington, D.C. (Wikimedia Commons/CoinDesk)Key Takeaways:
- According to a fresh FBI report, US residents were defrauded of $11.4 billion via cryptocurrency schemes in 2025, marking a 22% jump from the previous year.
- The FBI indicates that the majority of these crypto frauds are orchestrated by organized crime syndicates in Southeast Asia, which utilize human trafficking victims as coerced labor to execute long-term, psychologically coercive investment traps.
- Reports of cryptocurrency-related fraud climbed 21% to 181,565, featuring average damages of $62,604, with almost 18,600 individuals losing over $100,000 each amidst a larger spike in internet fraud.
Last year, US citizens reported $11.4 billion in financial losses resulting from cryptocurrency fraud, a 22% rise compared to 2024, underscoring the expanding magnitude of digital asset deception, as an FBI report disclosed on Tuesday.
«Cryptocurrency investment scams are sophisticated long-term scams using psychological manipulation, the appearance of legitimacy, and exploitation of cryptocurrencies to deceive victims into investing large sums of money,» the report stated.
Furthermore, the document noted that most crypto frauds are committed by organized criminal entities located in Southeast Asia that take advantage of human trafficking victims as forced labor to manage these operations.
Crypto analytics firm Chainalysis released a report in January showing that up to $17 billion in cryptocurrency was stolen globally through scams and fraud in 2025. Impersonation, fake crypto exchanges, and AI-driven scams targeting individuals were slowly overtaking cyber-attacks as the primary tactics criminals used to steal digital assets, according to the Crypto Crime Report.
The FBI highlighted in its analysis that victim numbers surged considerably. In 2025, there were 181,565 complaints related to cryptocurrency, a 21% increase. The average loss per incident was $62,604, emphasizing that victims are frequently lured into schemes designed to extract significant capital rather than minor amounts, the agency stated.
Financial losses are also highly concentrated. Nearly 18,600 complainants each lost over $100,000, indicating that many victims are surrendering life-altering sums, encompassing savings and retirement accounts.
More broadly, crypto scams are now central to a wider escalation in online fraud. Americans submitted over 1 million cybercrime complaints in 2025, with losses surpassing $20.8 billion. Fraud and scams made up the vast majority of these losses, reflecting what the FBI characterizes as a quickly changing threat environment.
More For You
Encryption Supremacy: Zcash and Privacy in the Age of Scale
Most crypto privacy models weaken as blockchain data grows. Encryption-based models like Zcash strengthen. CoinDesk Research maps the five privacy approaches and examines the widening gap.
Why it matters:
As blockchain adoption scales, the metadata available to machine learning models scales with it. Obfuscation-based privacy approaches are structurally degrading as a result. This report provides a comprehensive comparison of all five major crypto privacy architectures and a framework for evaluating which models remain durable as AI capabilities improve.
DeFi yields are crashing so hard that they can’t compete with a traditional savings account
DeFi yields have collapsed below TradFi rates, forcing investors to face higher smart contract risks for lower returns as regulation and exploits mount.
What to know:
- Flagship DeFi rates have fallen below traditional finance (TradFi), with Aave’s 2.61% APY on USDC trailing the 3.14% offered by Interactive Brokers.
- Investors are absorbing high risks—including a $2.47 billion spike in 2025 exploits—for returns that no longer offer a «risk premium» over «risk-free» government rates.
- Organic on-chain yield has…
DeFi yields are crashing so hard that they can’t compete with a traditional savings account
