Industrialised crypto scams driven by AI are on the rise
Scams and fraud in the crypto sphere amounted to an estimated $17 billion in 2025, according to data from Chainalysis.
The crypto analysis firm found that scam operations are being increasingly industrialised, driven by AI adaptions and cyber-crime-as-a-service offerings.
These innovations drove impersonation scams with a 1400% year-on-year growth, with AI scams increasing profitability 4.5 times over traditional methods.
High-yield investment programmes and pig butchering continue to dominate crypto fraud categories, but scams are converging due to AI advancements, Chainanalysis found, making traditional scam categories less distinct.
Impersonation scams are leveraging public trust in government…
