U.S. cryptocurrency fraud losses exceeded $11 billion in 2025, according to the FBI Internet Crime Report, as regulators and wallet providers escalated protections against fake crypto advisors and address-poisoning scams. The FBI recorded 181,565 cryptocurrency fraud complaints, with investment fraud accounting for nearly 49% of all scam losses reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged seven entities in December 2025 with defrauding retail investors of $14 million through fake crypto trading platforms and WhatsApp investment clubs between January 2024 and January 2025. Laura D'Allaird, chief of the SEC Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit, said: 'Fraud is fraud, and we will vigorously pursue securities fraud that harms retail investors.'
One name drawing scrutiny is PedroVazPaulo crypto investment, which appears across multiple domains with conflicting business claims and no verifiable SEC or FINRA registration. Regulators advise investors to search FINRA BrokerCheck, the SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure database, state securities regulators through NASAA, and confirm a disclosed Form ADV before sending funds to any advisor. The CFTC has also warned about fraudulent digital asset trading websites that display fabricated balances, and legitimate platforms typically hold FinCEN Money Services Business registration.
Chainalysis estimated $17 billion in total crypto scam revenue for 2025. The average scam payment rose 253% year over year, from $782 in 2024 to $2,764 in 2025. AI-enabled scam operations generated median daily revenue of $4,838, compared with $518 for operations without AI. Impersonation scams grew 1,400% year over year, and the Ronald Spektor case involved nearly $16 million stolen through Coinbase impersonation after a breach exposed 70,000 customer accounts. Americans aged 60 and older reported $7.7 billion in cybercrime losses, a 37% increase.
Address poisoning has emerged as a particularly costly scheme. On December 20, 2025, one victim lost $50 million in USDT after copying a spoofed lookalike address from Ethereum transaction history, despite successfully sending a $50 test transaction to the correct address 26 minutes earlier. Free databases such as Bitcoin Abuse and Whale Alert's Scam Alert let users search addresses for prior scam reports. Trust Wallet added address-poisoning protection in 2025 to flag suspicious lookalike addresses. The FBI's Operation Level Up has notified over 8,000 potential victims and prevented more than $500 million in losses since 2024, including 3,780 victims and an estimated $225 million saved in 2025.
The CLARITY Act, which advanced through a Senate procedural vote in May 2026, would establish clearer SEC-CFTC jurisdictional boundaries for digital assets, with a Senate floor vote scheduled for September 2026. Until then, investors should verify registration credentials and check every wallet address before sending funds.
