- Adults over 60 were most affected by crypto fraud, accounting for 33,000 complaints and $2.8 billion in losses.
- Cryptocurrency-related losses increased by 66% from 2023, with investment schemes causing the most significant financial damage.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has documented a substantial rise in cryptocurrency-related crimes in 2024, according to their annual report released on April 23. The agency recorded more than 140,000 complaints involving cryptocurrency, resulting in approximately $9.3 billion in losses nationwide.
Adults over 60 proved particularly vulnerable to these schemes, filing roughly 33,000 complaints and suffering $2.8 billion in losses, making them the demographic most heavily impacted by cryptocurrency fraud. The FBI report noted that 2024 set “a new record for losses reported to IC3, totaling a staggering $16.6 billion.”
Rising Trends in Crypto Crime
The financial damage from cryptocurrency scams increased approximately 66% from 2023, jumping from $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion. While crypto investment schemes caused the greatest monetary losses, “sextortion” schemes—where criminals manipulate photos and videos to create explicit content—generated the highest number of individual complaints. Scams involving cryptocurrency ATMs and kiosks were also prevalent.
The IC3 report highlighted that “fraud represented the bulk of reported losses in 2024, and Ransomware was again the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023.”
Global Impact and Prevention Efforts
Despite the alarming increase in crypto-related crimes, the FBI reported some success in prevention. Their “Operation Level Up” initiative saved potential victims approximately $285 million between January 2024 and January 2025.
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has raised concerns that 2025 could see even more scams as generative AI makes fraud “more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.” The firm estimated approximately $41 billion in illicit cryptocurrency transactions globally in 2024, with about 25% of funds connected to “hacking, extortion, trafficking, or scams.”
Notable incidents in 2024 included the $1.4 billion theft from Bybit exchange in March and North Korean Hackers stealing over $1.3 billion in various attacks, underscoring the persistent and evolving nature of cryptocurrency-related criminal activities.
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