Americans lost an estimated $80.7 billion to cryptocurrency scams and cybercrime in 2025, according to a new report from the Consumer Federation of America, which said crypto accounted for more than half of all scam and cybercrime losses.
The nonprofit consumer group based that estimate on FBI figures showing $11.37 billion in crypto scam losses reported to the agency last year, up 22% from 2024. CFA then applied a multiplier drawn from a 2017 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey, which found that only 14% of fraud victims report cases to law enforcement.
CFA uses a 7.1x multiplier across the figures in its report and calls that approach conservative.
In April, Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, told Decrypt that the FBI’s figure was “an important benchmark” that “captures only part of the picture,” working from a similar assumption that roughly 15% of victims report what happened.
Investment fraud led reported losses
Investment fraud was the largest single category in the report. The FBI logged $8.6 billion in reported losses there, while CFA’s estimate put the real total at $61.4 billion, up 32% from 2024.
Across all fraud categories, the FBI’s complaint center recorded 1,008,597 complaints and $20.9 billion in reported losses, a 26% increase. CFA scales that figure to $148.2 billion, or $1,009 per household.
Older Americans accounted for a large share of the damage. People over 60 lost $4.4 billion to crypto fraud alone, nearly 40% of the total crypto loss figure.
The FBI also separated AI-enabled crime for the first time, recording $893 million in losses across 22,364 complaints.
Cases and enforcement behind the numbers
Enforcement has ranged from warnings to asset seizures. The FBI said its Operation Level Up initiative, which contacts people before they send money, has notified 8,000 victims and prevented $500 million in losses, including $225.9 million last year.
Those cases involve both domestic and international fraudsters. Last year, an Oklahoma man was sentenced to five years in prison over a $9.4 million crypto Ponzi scheme.
Overseas scam networks have become a sharper focus for U.S. law enforcement. A Scam Center Task Force set up last year has seized about $25 million tied to fraudulent crypto investment platforms and online romance scams.
The U.S. Department of Justice also moved to forfeit 127,271 Bitcoin, then worth $15 billion, from Prince Group chairman Chen Zhi in a case tied to forced-labor scam compounds in Cambodia. The department described it as the largest forfeiture action in its history. Prince Group has denied involvement in scam operations.
CFA names Meta-owned platforms in scam activity
CFA has separately sued Meta over scam advertising. The report names Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp as the platforms most associated with scams.
“Tech companies are too often allowed to avoid accountability,” said Ben Winters, CFA’s director of AI and privacy. He pointed to the bipartisan SCAM Act, which would bar online platforms from displaying fraudulent or deceptive advertising.