Overview
- The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center report published July 29, 2026 recorded 181,565 crypto-related complaints and $11.366 billion in reported losses, a 22% increase from 2024.
- The Consumer Federation of America applied a 14% reporting rate and scaled FBI totals to estimate U.S. online-scam losses at about $148.2 billion and crypto losses near $80.7 billion.
- Americans aged 60 and older filed 44,555 crypto complaints and reported $4.4 billion in losses in 2025, a roughly 57% rise from the prior year that makes seniors the most harmed age group.
- Analysts and blockchain firms say fraud operations have become more professional and now use AI-driven impersonation, long-term social engineering techniques and investment scams, with most incidents routed through Meta platforms.
- The new figures are raising bipartisan political pressure for tougher rules on exchanges and platforms and have already fed law enforcement efforts such as the FBI’s Operation Level Up to warn victims and recover funds.