The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, has published an analysis of digital asset investment scams covering Sept. 8, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2025. Its review of 33,904 suspicious activity reports identified about $12.7 billion in transactions linked to such schemes, although the agency cautioned that the filings do not provide a comprehensive estimate of fraud.

U.S. law enforcement estimated that U.S. residents lost $7.2 billion to crypto investment scams in 2025, compared with $907 million in 2021. FinCEN partly attributed the increase to criminal organizations’ use of artificial intelligence to expand and refine their operations.

FinCEN said the number of suspicious activity reports and the value of the transactions cited in them rose during the review period. Filings increased by an average of 10.9% month over month, while the value of funds referenced in them grew by an average of 18%.

In December 2025, FinCEN received 2,482 reports citing more than $833.5 million in suspicious activity. In October 2023, it received 590 reports involving about $485.7 million.

Money services businesses, including cryptocurrency-sector companies, submitted 18,568 reports, or 54.8% of the total. Those filings cited more than $5.5 billion in activity. Depository institutions filed another 13,810 reports tied to about $6.4 billion.

How digital asset investment scams operate

FinCEN described schemes known as pig butchering, in which scammers establish trust-based or romantic relationships with victims before persuading them to invest in supposedly profitable digital assets.

The agency identified at least 22 digital assets used to receive or transfer funds. Ethereum, USDT and USDC were among the most common. FinCEN said scammers almost always converted received funds into stablecoins, primarily USDT.

Scam centers and financial infrastructure

In a separate alert, FinCEN described the infrastructure supporting scam centers involved in digital asset investment fraud. The agency said transnational criminal organizations, primarily in Southeast Asia, have built a large-scale ecosystem that enables crypto investment fraud and other scams.

FinCEN said scam-center activity is concentrated in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos but has expanded into South Asia, the Pacific islands, Africa, the Middle East and South America. The agency also said people may be coerced into working at such centers.

From October 2024 through June 2026, $385.95 million in automated clearing house transfers reviewed in cyber-scam cases under rapid response programs was initially routed to the Asia-Pacific region. That represented about 51% of the $751.67 million total and was the largest regional share.

FinCEN said scammers first obtain money from victims and then move it through networks of cryptocurrency addresses, decentralized finance protocols, exchanges and other services. Laundering methods include rapid transfers between addresses, consolidation wallets, mixers, and swaps across blockchains and digital assets.

The agency cited examples in which USDT moved from Ethereum to Tron through DeFi protocols. The funds could then be converted into fiat and enter the traditional financial system through money-mule networks, offshore cryptocurrency exchanges, peer-to-peer exchangers and over-the-counter brokers.

Separately, law enforcement agencies in the Netherlands and Belgium reported dismantling an international crypto investment fraud network with turnover of €100 million per month. European Union regulators have also reported an increase in crypto fraud during the rollout of the Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation.

Source: Incrypted