FinCEN Ties $12.7B to Crypto Scams Run From Asian Compounds

In brief

• FinCEN analyzed 33,904 suspicious activity reports filed between September 2023 and December 2025.
• About 1,300 institutions filed them, with crypto money services businesses reporting most often and banks reporting the largest sums.
• Older Americans were not disproportionately victimized, contradicting a common assumption about these scams.

The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has tied roughly $12.7 billion in suspicious financial activity to crypto investment scams run out of Southeast Asian compounds, in an analysis and an alert published Thursday.

Some 1,300 institutions filed the 33,904 reports, covering September 2023 to December 2025. Money services businesses, mostly crypto firms, filed 55% and flagged $5.5 billion. Banks filed 41% and flagged $6.4 billion. Securities firms made up the rest, at $784.5 million.

Filings grew by an average of 10.9% a month and reported sums by 18%, from 590 reports worth $485.7 million in October 2023 to 2,482 worth $833.5 million in December 2025. FinCEN cautions that the climb may partly reflect wider adoption of the search term from its 2023 alert, and that the totals can double-count transfers, attempted payments and filer errors.