Fraud in the cryptocurrency world has now gone far beyond isolated cases. According to the latest report published by blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, the global crypto fraud market has reached an annual volume of at least 14 billion dollars. This figure is expected to rise up to 17 billion dollars in 2025, with the detection of newly traced illegal funds.
According to experts, one of the most important factors behind this dramatic increase is artificial intelligence. Chainalysis’ analysis reveals that fraudsters are actively using AI tools to generate fake identities, deepfake videos and automated social engineering scenarios. While fraudulent groups using artificial intelligence earn an average of $3.2 million in revenue from a single fraud operation, this figure remains at $719 thousand for groups that do not use AI. This shows that artificial intelligence increases fraud revenues by 4.5 times.
“Pig Butchering” The Most Common Trap
These figures do not come as a surprise to the authorities. In recent years, the fraud method called “pig butchering” has become the center of crypto crimes. In this method, victims are directed to a fake crypto investment platform through social platforms and are completely disconnected from the system after depositing all their savings.
US federal agencies have turned to the courts to seize billions of dollars of crypto assets stolen this way last year alone. These fraud networks appear to be active on almost every social platform, from LinkedIn to Instagram, from dating apps to messaging services.
Dating Apps and Social Media Have Become the Epicenter
Throughout 2025, Forbes documented numerous cases of “pig butchering” carried out on dating apps such as Tinder, Hinge and eHarmony, as well as TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook and X. These scams have been reported to result in losses totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
A newly made public FBI investigation in San Diego revealed that a woman was persuaded to deposit $730,000 by a person she met on eHarmony and introduced himself as “Jack Zhang.” The victim, whose balance was shown to be over $1 million on the fake platform, realized that he had been defrauded by an additional fee of $128,000 when he wanted to withdraw money.
According to the same investigative file, the same fraud network targeted another woman on LinkedIn, causing the victim to drain $1.3 million of her retirement savings. It was stated that the woman later died due to cancer, and her husband faced early withdrawal penalties.
From Past to Present: Crypto Crimes and Major Operations
Crypto frauds have become the priority agenda of security institutions on a global scale in recent years. In 2023 and 2024, British police seized 61 thousand Bitcoins in one of the largest operations in history; The value of these assets was estimated at approximately 5.5 billion dollars at that time. The US Department of Justice announced that it had recovered $15 billion in crypto assets linked to large-scale pig butchering networks during the same period. These operations show that, thanks to the development of blockchain analysis tools, the advantage of criminals to “disappear without a trace” is gradually weakening.
Tracking and Recovery Gives Hope
Despite the pessimistic picture, there is also a positive development for experts: The extent of crypto frauds can now be measured more clearly. Thanks to advanced tracking technologies, Chainalysis and law enforcement can track stolen funds and recover a significant portion of them.
However, according to experts, the real question is: While artificial intelligence tools are so effective in the hands of fraudsters, how quickly can individual users and platforms take precautions in this race? Security in the crypto world is now redefined as a matter of awareness and regulation, not just technology.
