The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report lists 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency and $11.366 billion in reported losses. The figures document complaints received by the Internet Crime Complaint Center, including frauds that used crypto in some way; they do not measure all losses across the industry or prove that every report was independently verified. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: 2025 Annual Report
Follow the evidence
Trace how the event could reach markets, then inspect a competing explanation.
Compare explanations
Switch lenses to see what each account explains—and what remains uncertain.
IC3 recorded higher complaint counts and reported losses, with investment fraud the largest listed crypto category.
IC3 recorded higher complaint counts and reported losses, with investment fraud the largest listed crypto category.
Complaints are not a census; the report cannot establish the share of all crypto users harmed or attribute every case to crypto technology.
Investment fraud made up the largest reported crypto-loss category
The 2025 report records 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints and $11.366 billion in reported losses, up 21% and 22% respectively from 2024. The FBI lists an average reported loss of $62,604 and says 18,589 complainants reported losing more than $100,000. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: 2025 Annual Report
Within the cryptocurrency breakdown, investment fraud accounted for 61,559 complaints and $7.228 billion in reported losses. The report says complaints in that category increased 48% year over year and reported losses rose 25%. Those figures describe the FBI’s complaint records, not the total amount stolen worldwide. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: 2025 Annual Report
The IC3 report also lists 13,460 complaints involving crypto ATMs or kiosks and $389 million in losses. Its methodology groups complaints by reported crime type and descriptors. A crypto nexus can appear in different kinds of cyber-enabled crime, so it should not be read as evidence that the underlying blockchain or every crypto product caused the loss. FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center: 2025 Annual Report
Complaint data help identify patterns, not estimate every investor’s odds
The sharp increase in reported investment-fraud losses makes impersonation, fabricated returns and pressure to add funds important due-diligence questions. Yet complaint statistics do not provide a probability that a given exchange, wallet or token will fail. They cover people who filed reports and how those reports were categorized.
A fraud can use blockchain transfers as the payment rail while relying on a familiar confidence trick, such as an investment group, romance approach, impersonated adviser or fake recovery service. That distinction matters: tracing a transaction may help establish where funds went, but it does not by itself establish who controlled the receiving account or whether a marketed investment existed.
The FBI’s total can rise because more people report, losses become larger, crime patterns change or measurement categories are updated. It should be read as an official law-enforcement signal of reported harm, not a complete measure of market-wide activity or the safety of legitimate crypto infrastructure.
Verify the counterparty before following a wallet transfer
Check the exact legal entity, registration status and official domain through the regulator’s own records. Treat unsolicited direct messages, guaranteed-return claims, urgent top-up requests and paid recovery offers as separate warning signs; a professional-looking interface does not verify a company or a reported account balance.
For a purported investment, ask how the strategy generates returns, who holds the assets, whether client funds are segregated, what withdrawal restrictions apply and which independent records support the statements. For a transaction already sent, preserve transaction IDs, wallet addresses, messages and platform records and report through the appropriate official channel promptly.
Use the FBI figures as a reminder to examine evidence, not a reason to assume every crypto service is fraudulent. The alternative explanation for a higher complaint count may include improved reporting or increased uptake. Compare future IC3 releases on the same definitions before claiming that a year-to-year change proves a particular cause. FBI: Cryptocurrency and AI scams bilk Americans of billions