Crypto Scams Hit Record $17B in 2025 as Impersonation Schemes Surge

The average payment size to cryptocurrency scammers rose to $2,764 in 2025, a 253% increase from the $782 average recorded in 2024. According to Chainalysis, impersonation scams saw a 1400% year-over-year growth in total volume.

According to a Chainalysis report published on January 13, cryptocurrency scams garnered at least $14 billion in on-chain revenue last year. The blockchain analytics firm projects the final 2025 figure will exceed $17 billion after identifying more illicit addresses, a 24% upward revision consistent with its methodology.

The figures place 2025 as the largest year on record for crypto-related fraud by value and reflect a sharp shift in how losses are concentrated. Payment sizes grew faster than transaction counts, and impersonation overtook other scam categories as the primary source of new inflows.

From Discrete Schemes to Integrated Crypto Fraud Operations

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High-yield investment programs and pig butchering scams remained the largest categories by total volume in 2025, according to the Chainalysis data. The firm notes that traditional categorizations are becoming less distinct as operators combine multiple tactics.

Many investment scams now incorporate impersonation and social engineering. Pig butchering rings similarly use impersonation and technical wallet scams within their long-term schemes, the Chainalysis team said.

The most dramatic shift was the rise of impersonation as a standalone method. These scams grew more than 1400% in volume year-over-year. The average payment value to these schemes increased over 600%.

One prolific campaign involved impersonating U.S. toll collection agency E-ZPass. A group called "Smishing Triad," using phishing kits from a vendor called "Lighthouse," sent fraudulent SMS messages across eight states. According to a Google lawsuit filed in November 2025, a related toll fee scam reached 330,000 texts in one day. The scheme allegedly generated more than $1 billion over several years by targeting victims across more than 120 countries.

Private-sector impersonation followed a similar pattern. Exchange-related scams involved actors posing as customer support staff and directing victims to transfer assets to controlled wallets. In one case cited by Chainalysis, nearly 70,000 customer records were compromised through insider bribery, enabling fraudsters to conduct credible outreach and extract nearly $16 million in cryptocurrency.

Meanwhile, advanced tooling amplified these outcomes. Chainalysis identified a clear efficiency gap linked to artificial intelligence. Scams with on-chain links to AI vendors extracted $3.2 million per operation on average. That figure is 4.5 times the $719,000 average for scams without such links.

These AI-enabled operations generated a median daily revenue of $4,838. That compares to $518 for other scams. They also processed 35.1 average transfers per day, nine times more than the 3.89 for non-AI fraud.

The report points to the professionalization of tools as a key accelerator. The Lighthouse vendor offered phishing kits for as little as $50 in cryptocurrency. It received over 7,000 deposits totaling more than $1.5 million in crypto over three years.

Law enforcement responses scaled alongside these developments. In November 2025, the UK's Metropolitan Police recovered over 61,000 Bitcoin. The seizure was linked to a Chinese national convicted for a multibillion-pound investment fraud.

The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed charges against Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi for allegedly overseeing forced-labor scam compounds. U.S. authorities took action to seize and forfeit more than $15 billion in illicit proceeds linked to this activity, the report states.

Detective Sergeant Isabella Grotto, the lead investigator on the UK case, said the operation required tracing the movement of cryptocurrency across a number of years. Will Lyne, Head of Economic & Cybercrime at the Metropolitan Police, stated that fraud continues to grow in scale and sophistication.

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