Financial losses due to crypto scams reached a new record in 2025. In the 2026 Crypto Crime Report released on 13/11/2026, Chainalysis estimated losses of around $17 billion, a $4 billion increase from 2024.
The report shows that scams are not only increasing in number but also in effectiveness. The average loss from scams rose 253% from $782 to $2,764 in one year.
Scam inflows also increased drastically, especially those involving identity theft, which saw a 1400% increase from the previous year. In addition, scams utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) are also on the rise. This has made crypto scams faster, more convincing, and more profitable.
In an interview with Decrypt, Head of Research at Chainalysis, Eric Jardine said, “Over 70% of AI-enabled scams exist in the top 50th percentile of transfer volume.”
Chainalysis also found that scams using AI are high-value and high-volume. These scams utilize face-swap software to change a person's face to that of someone else, deepfake technology, or LLM (Large Language Model) sold by Chinese vendors through Telegram channels.
These scams prove to be more effective. Chainalysis research found that scams related to AI vendors resulted in an average loss of $3.2 million, while scams not related to AI generally stole $719,000. This means that AI-enabled scams are 4.5 times more profitable.
The transaction volume for AI-related scams is also 9 times higher. Chainalysis reported 35.1 daily transactions due to AI-related scams, while non-AI scams generated 3.89 transactions per day.
Once you move into these deepfake-type scenarios where people look, for all intents and purposes, like someone you know or a person of authority you’ve dealt with before, the believability goes up,” Jardine explained. “That means you’re more likely to be scammed, and it also lets scammers scale those operations in a way that’s really problematic.”
Recently, identity fraud scams have shifted from CEXs (Centralized Exchanges) and are targeting DEXs (Decentralized Exchanges), DeFi (Decentralized Finance) bridges, and protocols. Jardine explains that this shift reflects a larger trend in which scam operations are increasingly exploiting the permissionless and decentralized nature of these infrastructures to continue moving funds.
Every year, crypto scams become more sophisticated, organized, and efficient. This is driven by increasingly accessible AI tools, the rise of phishing-as-a-service platforms, and the combination of various scam techniques.
Therefore, protection from scams is one of the basic pieces of knowledge that all crypto investors must have. Learn about the different types of scams in the article What is a Scam? A Complete Guide to Digital & Cryptocurrency Fraud. Then, learn how to protect yourself from scams in the article How to Invest in Crypto Safely: A Complete Guide for Beginners.
