Crypto Scam and Fraud Loss Tax Statistics for 2026

Crypto scam and fraud losses have reached systemic scale. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded $9.3 billion in cryptocurrency-related losses in 2024 alone a 66% increase over 2023 while Chainalysis now estimates at least $14 billion flowed directly to scam addresses on-chain in 2025, with that figure projected to exceed $17 billion as additional illicit wallets are identified. Pig butchering the long-con investment fraud typology in which scammers build fake relationships before directing victims to fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms has become the single most financially damaging cybercrime category tracked by the FBI.

Against this backdrop, the tax treatment of these losses has never been more consequential. For victims, the question of whether a loss is deductible turns on a precise legal test: was the transaction entered into for profit? In March 2025, the IRS Office of Chief Counsel released memorandum 202511015, the most detailed federal guidance on crypto scam deductibility since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act restricted personal theft loss deductions in 2018. The memo analyzed 5 fact patterns, confirmed that 3 qualify for deduction under IRC §165(c)(2), and ruled that 2 romance and kidnapping scams do not. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted in July 2025, made the TCJA’s personal casualty loss restriction permanent, raising the stakes for victims who cannot establish a profit motive.

At KoinX, we work with investors and finance professionals navigating the compliance complexity created by fraud at scale and the data below reflects exactly why both enforcement tracking and tax guidance around crypto scam losses have become indispensable reference points in 2026.

This article draws exclusively on primary sources: FBI IC3 Annual Reports, IRS official publications and Chief Counsel memoranda, FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book, Chainalysis Crypto Crime Reports, TRM Labs research, and Department of Justice press releases and court filings.

Scope and Methodology

This article was compiled against the following methodological standards:

• Source universe and inclusion criteria: Only primary sources that produced their own underlying data were included. These encompass the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report (ic3.gov), the FTC 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, IRS Chief Counsel Advice 202511015 and related IRS.gov publications, the Chainalysis 2025 and 2026 Crypto Crime Reports, TRM Labs 2025 and 2026 Crypto Crime Reports, and DOJ press releases and court filings. Secondary media summaries were excluded; where statistics were sourced from secondary publications, they were traced to the originating government or analytics firm document.
• Recency enforcement: All statistics were drawn from documents published within the 2-year window ending April 2026, with original publication year retained in each bullet.
• Geographic scope: The article is primarily U.S.-focused for FBI, FTC, IRS, and DOJ enforcement data, with global on-chain data from Chainalysis and TRM Labs included where it provides broader scam ecosystem context.
• Material limitation: FBI IC3 and FTC figures represent reported losses only and systematically undercount actual fraud; the FBI has noted that many victims do not report due to embarrassment or belief that recovery is impossible. Chainalysis estimates are lower-bound figures that are revised upward in subsequent reporting cycles as additional illicit addresses are identified.

Key Figures: Crypto Scam and Fraud Losses at a Glance

• The FBI’s IC3 received 149,686 cryptocurrency-related complaints in 2024, with total reported losses of $9.3 billion a 66% increase over 2023 based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report published April 2025.
• Crypto investment fraud, including pig butchering schemes, accounted for $5.8 billion in losses across 41,557 complaints in 2024, making it the top-loss crime category tracked by IC3 for the 2nd consecutive year, based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report.
• Cryptocurrency scams received at least $14 billion on-chain in 2025, up from a revised $12 billion in 2024, with Chainalysis projecting the 2025 figure could exceed $17 billion based on historical revision patterns of 24% average annual growth, based on the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report published January 2026.
• The FTC reported that consumers lost $5.7 billion to investment scams in 2024, a 24% increase over 2023, making investment fraud the highest-loss category in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, based on the FTC 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book published March 2025.

FBI IC3 Crypto Fraud and Investment Scam Statistics

• Total reported internet crime losses reached a record $16.6 billion in 2024, a 33% increase over $12.5 billion in 2023, with fraud representing the bulk of losses, based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report.
• Investment fraud was the costliest crime category tracked by IC3 in 2024, with total reported losses of $6.57 billion including both crypto and non-crypto variants and complaint volume rising 21% year-over-year, based on a 2025 analysis by Abnormal AI citing the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report.
• Americans over the age of 60 reported $4.9 billion in fraud losses across all scam types in 2024, a 43% year-over-year increase, and submitted the most complaints of any age group to IC3, based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report as cited by TRM Labs.
• Individuals over 60 reported $2.8 billion in losses specifically tied to crypto-related crimes in 2024, up from $1.65 billion in 2023 and $1.08 billion in 2022, based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report as cited by Bitcoin Ethereum News.
• Cryptocurrency ATM and QR code scams including tech support fraud, extortion, and government impersonation resulted in nearly $247 million in losses in 2024, based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report as analyzed by TRM Labs.
• In 2025, the IC3 received 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints totaling more than $11 billion in losses, with crypto investment scams alone producing $7.228 billion from more than 61,000 complaints, based on the FBI press release on 2025 IC3 data.
• The FBI IC3’s Financial Fraud Kill Chain recorded a 66% success rate in 2024 across 3,020 complaints attempting to freeze fraudulent funds totaling $848.4 million, with $469.1 million frozen domestically and $92.5 million frozen internationally, based on the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report.

Pig Butchering Scam Statistics

• Pig butchering investment scams received more than $2.5 billion in on-chain inflows in 2024, with addresses linked to such schemes tracked by TRM Labs across multiple blockchains, based on the TRM Labs 2025 Crypto Crime Report.
• The Huione Guarantee platform, a primary infrastructure provider for pig butchering operators, processed more than $70 billion in cryptocurrency transactions since 2021, based on the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report published January 2025.
• In the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report, the average scam payment received by pig butchering and related fraud addresses increased from $782 in 2024 to $2,764 in 2025 a 253% year-over-year increase based on data published by Chainalysis in January 2026.
• Impersonation scams a growing pig butchering variant in which fraudsters pose as government agencies or legitimate businesses grew more than 1,400% year-over-year in 2025, with the average payment per victim rising more than 600%, based on the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report.
• AI-enabled scams with on-chain links to AI vendors generated 4.5x more revenue per operation than those without AI, with AI-linked scam operations averaging $3.2 million each compared to $719,000 for non-AI operations, based on the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report.
• The DOJ seized $225.3 million in USDT in June 2025, described as the largest cryptocurrency seizure in U.S. Secret Service history, linked to a pig butchering operation connected to a scam compound in the Philippines and involving at least 400 identified victims, based on the DOJ press release as reported by CNBC.
• Operation Level Up surpassed 8,000 total crypto fraud victims notified since its January 2024 launch and reduced victim losses by more than $500 million cumulative through 2025, based on the FBI press release on 2025 IC3 data.
• 76% of the more than 4,300 victims contacted by Operation Level Up in its first year were unaware they were being scammed at the time the FBI reached them, based on the FBI Operation Level Up press release published March 2025.

Rug Pull and DeFi Fraud Statistics

• In 2024, 3.59% of all new tokens minted displayed classic rug-pull behavior developer abandonment following artificial price inflation based on the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report published January 2025.
• Total cryptocurrency stolen via hacks and unauthorized access rose approximately 21% year-over-year to $2.2 billion in 2024, with private key compromises accounting for 43.8% of stolen funds, based on the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report.
• North Korean state-sponsored hackers stole $1.34 billion in cryptocurrency in 2024, representing 61% of all crypto stolen across the year, based on the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime Report.
• Total illicit cryptocurrency addresses received at least $154 billion in 2025, a 162% year-over-year increase from 2024, with the surge driven primarily by a 694% increase in value received by sanctioned entities, based on the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report introduction published March 2026.
• Stablecoins accounted for 84% of all illicit cryptocurrency transaction volume in 2025, continuing a multi-year upward trend from 63% in 2024, based on the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report published March 2026.
• TRM Labs estimated that $35 billion was sent to fraud schemes globally in 2025, with pig butchering scams accounting for a substantial share of those inflows, based on TRM Labs’ 2026 Crypto Crime Report as cited by TRM Labs blog.

FTC Crypto Fraud and Consumer Loss Statistics

• The FTC received 2.6 million fraud reports in 2024, with 38% of reporters indicating money was lost up from 27% in 2023 and total reported consumer fraud losses reaching $12.5 billion, a 25% increase over 2023, based on the FTC 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book.
• Cryptocurrency was the 2nd-highest payment method by aggregate loss in 2024 FTC fraud reports, with $1.42 billion in reported crypto losses, behind only bank transfers and payments at $2.09 billion, based on the FTC 2024 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book.
• The FTC reported that 79% of people who lost money in an investment scam in 2024 reported an average individual loss of $9,000, far exceeding the median loss of just under $500 across all scam types reported to the FTC, based on a 2025 analysis citing the FTC Consumer Sentinel Data Book.
• Older adults reported losing $2.4 billion to fraud in 2024, with the FTC estimating that true losses by older adults could be as high as $82 billion due to underreporting, based on the FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024-2025 report cited by McKnight’s Senior Living.
• Older adults reported $454 million in cryptocurrency transfer losses to the FTC in 2024, making cryptocurrency the 2nd-highest payment method for older adult fraud losses behind bank transfers at $832 million, based on the FTC Protecting Older Consumers 2024-2025 report cited by McKnight’s Senior Living.

IRS Theft Loss Tax Treatment and Deductibility Statistics

• The IRS Office of Chief Counsel released memorandum 202511015 on March 14, 2025, analyzing 5 scam scenarios involving crypto losses in 2024 and concluding that 3 of the 5 fact patterns including pig butchering and account compromise scams qualify for a theft loss deduction under IRC §165(c)(2), while 2 do not, based on the official IRS memorandum.
• Under IRS CCA 202511015, none of the 5 analyzed taxpayer scenarios qualified for the Ponzi scheme safe harbor under Rev. Proc. 2009-20, as the pig butchering scam in the memo did not meet the “qualified loss” criteria because no indictment or criminal charge was filed against the scammer at the time of loss, based on analysis by Brass Tax citing the IRS memorandum.
• The Ponzi scheme safe harbor under Rev. Proc. 2009-20 caps the deductible loss at 75% of the invested principal (net of any amounts received), which can create a separate taxable income issue when actual losses exceed the cap, based on analysis cited by CryptoTaxAudit.

DOJ Enforcement and Asset Seizure Statistics

• The DOJ filed a civil forfeiture complaint in October 2025 against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin valued at approximately $15 billion, the largest forfeiture action in DOJ history, linked to Chen Zhi’s Prince Holding Group pig butchering operation based in Cambodia, based on the DOJ indictment as reported by CNBC.
• Prosecutors alleged that Prince Holding Group generated up to $30 million per day in fraud proceeds at its peak, laundering funds through unhosted digital wallets, based on the DOJ indictment as reported by Fox Business.
• The DOJ seized $61 million in USDT in March 2026 tied to a pig butchering operation investigated by Homeland Security Investigations in North Carolina, based on the TRM Labs blog analysis of the DOJ seizure.
• Shan Hanes, former CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank in Kansas, was sentenced to 24 years in prison in August 2024 for embezzling $47 million of bank funds that he then lost to a pig butchering scam, based on the DOJ forfeiture complaint details as reported by CoinDesk.
• The Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report noted that Chinese money laundering networks processed over 10% of pig butchering scam laundering flows consistently in 2025, up from less than 1% in Q1 2022, based on the Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime scams chapter.

References

• https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2024_IC3Report.pdf
• https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/crypto-scams-2026/
• https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/csn-annual-data-book-2024.pdf
• https://abnormal.ai/blog/2024-fbi-ic3-report
• https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/a-record-breaking-year-for-cybercrime-key-findings-from-the-fbis-2024-ic3-report
• https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/crypto/crypto-crime-losses-in-the-u-s-jumped-to-9-3b-in-2024-fbi-says/
• https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/cryptocurrency-and-ai-scams-bilk-americans-of-billions
• https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/2025-crypto-crime-report-introduction/
• https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/18/doj-crypto-scams.html
• https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/miami/news/the-fbis-operation-level-up-takes-a-proactive-approach-against-crypto-scams
• https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/doj-seizes-usd-61-million-tied-to-pig-butchering-scam-in-north-carolina
• https://cybernews.com/news/ftc-top-scams-2024-consumer-losses-12-billion/
• https://www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/news/older-adults-reported-losing-2-4-billion-to-fraud-in-2024-ftc/
• https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-wd/202511015.pdf