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A record $17 billion was lost to cryptocurrency scams last year, according to blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis.
Chainalysis in a Jan. 13 report said the figure was up from $14 billion in 2024, attributing the surge to an increase in impersonation scams and scammers becoming more efficient through the use of artificial intelligence tools.
Impersonation scams, which involve scammers posing as organizations or authority figures, grew by a staggering 1,400% in 2025, Chainalysis said, adding that the average loot from the schemes jumped by an equally concerning 600%.
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The company cited examples such as the E-ZPass scam linked to several Chinese-speaking criminal organizations and Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) customer service impersonation scams.
Meanwhile, AI is making impersonations more convincing and allowing scammers to scale faster and rake in more loot, Chainalysis said. The company cited a JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) report showing that AI-powered schemes pulled in four and a half times more revenue with nine times more transaction activity. It said AI is "enabling scammers to reach and manage more victims simultaneously."
All of this has coincided with what Chainalysis termed "the industrialization of fraud." So-called "Crime-as-a-Service" groups, which provide software and tools for scammers, have now morphed into complex organizations with different specialized units, the company said.
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"This modular, service-based approach is a force multiplier and allows even technically unsophisticated criminals to execute sophisticated phishing campaigns, substantially lowering the barrier to entry for cryptocurrency fraud," the company said.
Chainalysis added that scammers who leverage phishing kits from the criminal groups are 688 times more successful in dollar terms.
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