FinCEN: $12.7B Linked to Crypto Scams

What FinCEN found

FinCEN, a bureau within the U.S. Treasury, identified about $12.7 billion in activity reported by U.S. institutions tied to suspected digital-asset investment scams. That figure is based on 33,904 Bank Secrecy Act filings submitted between Sept. 8, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2025. The agency emphasized this is not a ledger of confirmed victim losses because the dataset can include attempted transactions, duplicate reports, two-way transfers, and later amendments.

Filings largely came from money services businesses closely linked to the digital-asset industry, while as many as 96% of all reports originated from depository institutions. On average, monthly filing counts rose 10.9% and dollar amounts climbed roughly 18%. FinCEN attributed the increase in reporting to an expanded vocabulary used in alerts, cautioning that this should not be taken as evidence that scam activity itself is rising. Victims were identified across all 50 states and some U.S. territories.

How the scams operate and where they connect

FinCEN says a significant share of the schemes are operated out of Southeast Asia by transnational organized crime groups, using a service-for-hire model. Operators rely on "guarantee marketplaces" to source everything from account creation and phishing services to professional money laundering. Laundering specialists create front companies and use mule bank accounts to shuttle funds through the financial system, including by using stablecoins to send money to exchanges outside the United States.