Americans lost $11.4 billion to cryptocurrency scams in 2025, according to the latest annual report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The data shows a 22% increase in financial losses compared to 2024, cementing digital assets as the primary driver of cybercrime in the United States.
The IC3 received 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints throughout the year. Total cybercrime losses across all categories reached $20.877 billion, meaning crypto fraud accounted for more than 50% of the total financial damage reported to federal authorities.
Investment Fraud and AI Threats
Investment fraud, frequently referred to as "pig butchering," caused the highest level of damage. The FBI recorded 61,559 complaints in this category, resulting in $7.228 billion in losses. These scams typically involve fraudsters initiating contact through social media or dating applications, moving victims to encrypted platforms, and displaying fake profits on fraudulent trading sites.
Artificial intelligence has emerged as a significant force multiplier for these criminal networks. The FBI reported 8,712 complaints specifically linked to AI-assisted crypto scams, which caused $741.6 million in losses. Criminals are increasingly deploying deepfake video, voice cloning, and AI-generated personas to build trust with victims and make fraudulent platforms appear legitimate.
Older Americans sustained the heaviest financial impact. Individuals over the age of 60 filed 44,555 crypto complaints, losing a combined $4.43 billion. This demographic accounted for 39% of all crypto-related losses documented by the IC3 in 2025, with many victims reporting individual losses near $100,000.
Secondary fraud schemes also contributed to the rising toll. Recovery scams, where criminals pose as government officials or legal representatives to promise the return of previously stolen assets for an upfront fee, resulted in $1.4 billion in losses across 10,516 complaints. Additionally, scams involving crypto ATMs and kiosks surged, with losses in that category rising 58% year-over-year to $389 million.
The FBI’s report, which surpassed 1 million total complaints across all categories for the first time, suggests that the actual volume of theft may be higher than recorded figures. Because these statistics rely on self-reported data, they likely understate the total scale of the financial damage inflicted by organized crime groups, many of which the FBI tracks to operations in Southeast Asia.
