The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has published a new alert and analysis linking approximately $12.7 billion in suspicious financial activity to digital asset investment scams, often called pig butchering or romance baiting. The review covered 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act reports filed by roughly 1,300 financial institutions between Sept. 8, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2025.
Money services businesses—mostly crypto firms—submitted 55% of the reports and flagged $5.5 billion. Banks accounted for 41% of filings and reported $6.4 billion, while securities firms and other institutions flagged $784.5 million. Reporting volumes increased sharply over the period: monthly filings rose from 590 in October 2023 to 2,482 by December 2025, while monthly suspicious amounts grew from $485.7 million to $833.5 million.
FinCEN said scammers used at least 22 digital assets, with Ethereum, Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC among the most commonly identified. However, blockchain analysis found that proceeds were usually converted into stablecoins—almost exclusively USDT—before being moved through decentralized finance protocols or digital asset exchanges outside the United States. The agency cautioned that the $12.7 billion total should not be treated as a direct measure of victim losses because reports can include attempted transactions, double counting, and reporting errors.
The analysis found victims in all 50 states and several U.S. territories. Older adults appeared in about 25% of reports, roughly matching their share of the U.S. population, but financial damage was often severe: victims used retirement accounts, home equity lines, second mortgages, and personal loans to fund transfers. Many operations were tied to industrial-scale scam compounds in Cambodia, Laos, and Burma, where hundreds of thousands of workers have been trafficked through fake job offers.
Enforcement actions have escalated. FinCEN’s Rapid Response Program has interdicted $1.8 billion since 2015 and recovered just over $1 billion for 5,790 U.S. victims. In March, the FBI and Thai police froze about $580 million in cryptocurrency and seized around 8,000 phones. U.S. prosecutors also sought forfeiture of more than 127,000 Bitcoin linked to Cambodia-based Prince Group founder Chen Zhi, and the Department of Justice sought the seizure of $225 million in USDT tied to Southeast Asian fraud networks.
FinCEN urged victims to contact financial institutions and file complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center or the U.S. Secret Service, while encouraging financial institutions to share information under Section 314(b) of the USA PATRIOT Act.
