Crypto crime splits into two very different businesses. Scams persuade people to send their money: fake investment platforms, romance scams, impostors. Hacks take it without asking, from exchanges, bridges and wallets. Scams take more money from more people. Hacks make the headlines, and in 2026 they broke every record.

taken by crypto scams in 2025 (projected over $17B)
$14B+
stolen from crypto services in 2025
$3.4B
of it taken by North Korea
$2.02B
stolen from Binance on 29 October 2026
$6.3B
in crypto losses reported to the FBI in 2025
$11.37B
lost at crypto ATMs in the US in 2025
$389M

Scams: the bigger number

Chainalysis traced at least $14 billion in payments to crypto scams on the blockchain in 2025 and expects the final figure to pass $17 billion as more scam wallets are identified. It revised its 2024 figure the same way, from $9.9 billion to about $12 billion.1

Three changes stand out in its data:1

  • Impersonation exploded. Scams posing as exchanges, companies and officials grew about 1,400% in a year.
  • Each payment got bigger. The average payment to a scam rose from $782 to $2,764.
  • AI pays. Scam operations that bought tools from AI vendors took in about 4.5 times more per operation than those that didn't.

Pig butchering, the long con where a scammer builds a relationship before steering the victim into a fake investment platform, is still the most common type by volume.1 In the US, crypto investment fraud reported to the FBI reached $7.23 billion in 2025, up 25%, and the FBI ties most of it to scam compounds in Southeast Asia.6 Read our investigation into the largest of them.

Hacks: fewer, bigger, and mostly North Korean

Hackers stole about $3.4 billion from crypto services in 2025, by Chainalysis's count; TRM Labs, which counts differently, puts it at $2.87 billion. The Bybit hack in February 2025, about $1.5 billion, was the largest on record at the time, and the three biggest hacks made up 69% of all losses from services.27

North Korea took at least $2.02 billion in 2025, up 51%, about three in every five dollars stolen.2 By TRM's count, North Korean groups were behind 64% of the value stolen in hacks that year.7

2026: a record year in one afternoon

The first half of 2026 was quieter in dollars and busier in incidents: about $972 million stolen across a record 207 hacks, 66% of it linked to North Korea.8

Date (2026)TargetAmountAttribution
AprilDrift$285MNorth Korea-linked
AprilKelpDAO$292MNorth Korea-linked
SeptemberBitget$387.5MNorth Korea, according to the company
29 OctoberBinance~$6.3BNorth Korea, according to the FBI

Sources: TRM Labs, The Record, Chainalysis.91034

Then, on 29 October, attackers drained about $6.3 billion from Binance's hot wallets. TRM Labs puts the loss at $6.36 billion and Chainalysis at about $6.4 billion, and both linked it to North Korea's TraderTraitor group; the FBI confirmed North Korea's role on 31 October. About $2.7 billion to $3 billion had been frozen within two days, and Binance says it will cover users' losses.3411 Read what we know about the Binance hack.

Adding the published figures, about $1.73 billion stolen by early September, the Bitget theft and the Binance hack, gives at least $8.5 billion stolen in 2026, roughly two and a half times the 2025 total; that sum is our arithmetic.9103 TRM Labs estimates North Korea alone has taken $7.4 billion this year.5

Crypto ATMs: the scam at the corner store

Americans reported $389 million in losses at cryptocurrency kiosks to the FBI in 2025, up 58% from $246.7 million. About two-thirds of it was lost by people over 60, often told by a fake bank or government official to "protect" their savings by feeding cash into a machine.6

States are acting before Washington does. Indiana banned crypto kiosks in March 2026, Tennessee from 1 July and Minnesota from 1 August. A federal bill introduced in February 2025, the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act, has not passed.12131415

What this means if you lost crypto

Crypto is not as untraceable as scammers say. Every transfer is recorded on a public blockchain, so analytics firms and investigators can follow the money, and stablecoin issuers and exchanges can freeze it, as they did within hours of the Binance hack.

If you lost crypto to a scam or a hack

  1. Write down every wallet address, transaction ID, website and username involved, with dates.
  2. Report it to ic3.gov (US) or your national police, and to the exchange you sent from.
  3. Be wary of anyone who contacts you offering to get it back for a fee. Recovery scams cost Americans $1.4 billion in 2025.6
  4. Report it on ScamMarketCap or join an existing case: a group of victims with the same evidence is much easier for a lawyer or an investigator to act on.

Sources

  1. Crypto scams in 2025, Chainalysis, 2026 Crypto Crime Report, 13 January 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Crypto hacking and stolen funds in 2025, Chainalysis, 18 December 2025. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. North Korea steals USD 6.36 billion from Binance in the largest hack in history, TRM Labs, 29 October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Binance exploit: latest findings and response, Chainalysis, 30 October 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. North Korea has stolen USD 12.8 billion in crypto, USD 7.4 billion of it in 2026, TRM Labs, 30 October 2026. ↩ ↩2

  6. 2025 Internet Crime Report, FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 6 April 2026. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Record USD 158 billion in illicit crypto flows in 2025, TRM Labs, January 2026. ↩ ↩2

  8. H1 2026 crypto hacks reach a record high as losses fall below USD 1 billion, TRM Labs, 1 July 2026. ↩

  9. North Korea stole 76% of all crypto hack value in 2026 with just two attacks, TRM Labs, 30 April 2026; and 2026's biggest hack to date, TRM Labs, 8 September 2026. ↩ ↩2

  10. Crypto CEO accuses North Korea of $387 million theft, The Record, 25 September 2026. ↩ ↩2

  11. FBI says North Korea was behind the $6.3 billion Binance crypto hack, NBC News and Reuters, 31 October 2026. ↩

  12. Indiana prohibits virtual currency kiosks, National Law Review, 28 March 2026. ↩

  13. Tennessee enacts law prohibiting virtual currency kiosks, Orrick InfoBytes, 16 April 2026. ↩

  14. Banning crypto kiosk fraud in Minnesota, AARP, 2026. ↩

  15. S. 710, Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act, US Senate, introduced 25 February 2025. ↩