A Bitcoin wealth adviser has shared a harrowing firsthand account of a client who lost his entire retirement savings—amounting to 1 Bitcoin—to a sophisticated "pig butchering" romance scam. The incident underscores the growing threat of emotionally manipulative frauds that bypass even robust technical security measures.
Terence Michael, an author and adviser affiliated with The Bitcoin Adviser, detailed on X how his client, a recently divorced individual who was not wealthy, had finally accumulated 1 BTC after years of saving. The client had recently moved his holdings off Coinbase into a distributed multi-key security and inheritance protocol set up with The Bitcoin Adviser and Unchained, specifically to enhance security.
Despite this setup, the client was approached online by a scammer posing as a female trader. The fraudster promised to double his Bitcoin and gradually built what appeared to be a romantic relationship—a hallmark of pig butchering scams. Michael made "numerous phone calls" and sent a "string of text messages" in a desperate attempt to stop the impending transfer, but his warnings went unheeded. The client, convinced of the relationship's authenticity, authorized the transfer and even purchased a plane ticket expecting to meet the scammer.
The multi-signature wallet structure, while introducing delays, could not prevent the transfer once the client chose to authorize it. After the funds were sent, the attacker reportedly admitted that the photos used throughout the relationship were fake and generated using artificial intelligence tools.
This case highlights the alarming scale of such scams. In 2024 alone, pig butchering schemes drained an estimated $5.5 billion from victims across roughly 200,000 reported cases. The rapid adoption of AI is fueling a new generation of crypto fraud, with a 2025 report co-authored by Bitget, SlowMist, and Elliptic finding that AI-powered scams pushed global losses to $4.6 billion in 2024.
Law enforcement is responding. In June, the US Department of Justice announced the seizure of more than $225 million in cryptocurrency tied to pig butchering operations. Similar global crackdowns have occurred, including in Nigeria where 792 people were arrested in a major operation against crypto-related romance scams.
Michael issued a stark warning: "Bitcoin can’t magically double, and it certainly can’t double by someone you haven’t met who is also falling in love with you." The episode reveals a critical vulnerability in the crypto ecosystem: while custody tools can protect against hacks, they offer limited defense against scams driven by psychological manipulation.
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