FBI: Crypto fraud losses up 66% year-over-year to $9,3 billion

In 2024, the bureau received over 140 000 complaints

24.04.2025 - 12:00

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3 min

What’s new? The US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report on the volume of cryptocurrency fraud. In 2024, IC3 received more than 140 000 incident complaints with a total loss of $9,3 billion. The increase compared to 2023 was 66%. Those over the age of 60 suffered the most from cryptocurrency fraud: about 33 000 complaints with losses of $2,8 billion.

FBI report

What else is known? Crypto investment schemes accounted for the largest share of losses, with the largest number of complaints related to blackmail schemes, where scammers manipulated photos and videos to create explicit content. Crypto ATM fraud is also quite common.

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In February, the FBI reported that its operation called Level Up saved potential crypto fraud victims about $285 million between January 2024 and January 2025.

However, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis suggested that 2025 will be a record year for fraud because generative AI makes the practice “more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.”

Chainalysis estimated that globally, illicit cryptocurrency was worth about $41 billion in 2024, with about 25% of the funds linked to hacking, extortion, or fraud.

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Earlier, the US Department of Justice began revising the process of assessing the amount of compensation for victims of crypto fraud. The officials were particularly interested in the bankruptcies of a number of crypto firms in 2022. According to the results, users will be refunded funds in fiat based on the value of assets at the time of the collapse of platforms.

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