The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has unveiled its annual report for 2025, revealing a staggering rise in cryptocurrency-related fraud that resulted in losses exceeding $11.3 billion for American victims. This significant figure now represents more than half of the total reported cybercrime losses across the nation. In 2025, the IC3 registered a total of 1,008,597 complaints, accumulating to combined losses of $20.877 billion—a notable 26% increase compared to 2024.
Among these complaints, cryptocurrency-related fraud accounted for a substantial portion: 181,565 complaints and losses totaling $11.366 billion. This marked a dramatic increase from 2017, when losses attributed to cryptocurrency fraud were approximately $27 million, illustrating a staggering growth of over 400 times in just eight years.
Central to this alarming trend is the prevalence of cryptocurrency investment fraud, which has been characterized by the FBI as relying on psychological manipulation and the illusion of legitimacy to entice victims into making significant investments. In 2025, these scams alone led to reported losses of $7.2 billion, making them the foremost source of financial harm for Americans.
The modus operandi of these fraudsters often involves reaching out to victims through various digital channels—such as text messages, social media, and even dating apps—luring them into seemingly exclusive investment groups. Victims are led to send cryptocurrency to fake platforms that promise fabricated profits, only to be met with demands for taxes and fees once they attempt to withdraw their funds. Ultimately, the scammers disappear with the victims’ investments. The FBI attributes many of these operations to organized criminal enterprises based primarily in Southeast Asia, notably Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, where forced labor is employed.
Cryptocurrency’s role is not confined solely to investment fraud; it has become the predominant payment method across multiple fraud categories. The IC3 report highlights that digital assets were involved in 72% of investment fraud transactions, 43% of tech support scams, and 40% of government impersonation schemes. Overall, investment fraud losses reached $8.648 billion, with the cryptocurrency component contributing the largest share. Tech support scams that utilized digital currencies alone incurred losses of $1.226 billion.
The demographic most affected by these fraudulent schemes is Americans aged 60 and older, who filed 44,555 cryptocurrency-related complaints and suffered losses amounting to $4.43 billion—more than any other age group. Within the crypto investment fraud category, seniors reported losses of $2.76 billion compared to $1.38 billion among those aged 50 to 59. Another emerging threat is the crypto ATM and kiosk scams, which generated 13,460 complaints and $389 million in losses—a 58% increase from the previous year, heavily impacting senior citizens.
The IC3 report also noted the rising trend of recovery scams, where fraudsters target previous crypto victims with promises that they can reclaim lost funds, leading to an additional 10,516 complaints and $1.4 billion in losses, with the 60-plus demographic incurring $540.5 million of these losses.
In response to this crisis, the FBI has initiated Operation Level Up, which began in January 2024. This operation leverages IC3 complaint data to alert victims of ongoing cryptocurrency investment fraud. In just the first year, the initiative reached out to 3,780 victims, saving an estimated $225.8 million, with a notable 78% of those notified unaware they were being scammed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force—a coalition of agencies including the DOJ, FBI, and Secret Service—focuses on dismantling Southeast Asian scam operations, particularly targeting Chinese organized crime affiliates. Since the launch of Operation Level Up, the FBI has reported total savings exceeding $500 million across all notified victims, indicating a potential underreporting of fraud cases.
The stark realities presented in the report serve as a clarion call for increased awareness and protective measures against the burgeoning world of cryptocurrency fraud, emphasizing the importance of vigilance in the digital financial landscape.
