AI-Powered Crypto Scams Drive $17 Billion Losses in 2025 Report

According to Chainalysis, 2025 marks a big change in crypto crime. Scam money flowing on-chain reached at least $14 billion, and the total will likely go over $17 billion as more wallets are found. Scams have changed too: the average payment rose from $782 to $2,764, meaning fraud groups are attacking fewer people but taking much more money per attack.

Of these scams, impersonation scams grow fastest: up over 1400% every year. These scams rely on the element of trust, where criminals impersonate government agencies, exchanges, and service providers. One big case involved fake toll payment messages connected to E-ZPass.

A China-based network called Darcula used phishing-as-a-service tools to send hundreds of thousands of messages in one day. The setup for the scams was inexpensive, with phishing kits costing well under $500, but the effect was huge. Over several years, similar campaigns have affected over a million people worldwide and caused about $1 billion in losses.

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AI Tools Make Scams Faster and More Profitable

AI has made scam operations more powerful. According to data from Chainalysis, scams linked to vendors selling AI tools bring in much more money than traditional scams.

On average, those AI-enabled scams earned about $3.2 million per operation, compared with $719,000 for scams without AI links. The scams also moved faster, handling more transactions each day and reaching more victims at once.

Deepfake videos, voice cloning, and automated chat systems are common now, particularly in romance and investment fraud. This shift helps explain why AI-driven scams are about 4.5 times more profitable than older methods.

UK and US Crack Down on Large-Scale Crypto Crime

Even against a backdrop of rising activity, 2025 saw some major enforcement successes: UK police seized over 61,000 Bitcoin, roughly £5 billion-worth, in a case linked to a long-running Chinese investment fraud.

US authorities acted against the Prince Group, a network connected with forced-labor scam sites across Southeast Asia, in an effort to disrupt more than $15 billion in illegal profits. These show how blockchain transparency is helping investigators trace money across borders.

But Chainalysis warns that scams are becoming increasingly organized, comprising small, modular services for phishing, money laundering, and recruitment. So the fight isn’t over as 2026 starts.

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