Has fraud also become industrialized? The AI driver behind the 1400% growth

According to the latest Chainalysis report, a disturbing trend has emerged in the crypto space by 2025: the number of impersonation scams has surged approximately 1400% year-over-year, and the average loss per incident has skyrocketed by over 600%. More critically, AI is transforming these scams from scattered criminal acts into an efficient industry chain. This has become one of the most urgent risks in the field of crypto security.

Scam Techniques Evolving from Incidents to Systems

Impersonation scams may sound simple, but in practice, they have become quite complex. Malicious actors impersonate trusted individuals, official institutions, or well-known platforms, using social engineering to induce users to transfer funds or steal sensitive information such as private keys and account permissions. Chainalysis points out that an increasing number of investment scams and “pig butchering” schemes are now combining with impersonation tactics, forming highly complex fraudulent models.

How powerful is this evolution? A typical 2025 case illustrates this: scammers impersonated the top US cryptocurrency exchange and defrauded victims of nearly $16 million. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office in the US filed charges against related suspects in December 2025.

Data Comparison: From Marginal Risk to Core Threat

AI is a Key Driver of Scam Industryization

This is the truly concerning part. Chainalysis’s analysis shows that scam gangs using AI tools are significantly more efficient and profitable, with profits approximately 4.5 times higher than traditional scams.

What has AI done? Three main things:

• Lowered the technical barriers to committing scams, enabling more participants
• Greatly increased the credibility of scam scripts, making fraudulent messages harder to detect
• Allowed scammers to manipulate more victims simultaneously, enabling scaled operations

In other words, AI not only makes scams easier but also more profitable. That’s why Chainalysis describes this as an “industry chain”—it’s no longer just individual scammers making a quick buck, but an organized, efficient, profitable criminal industry.

Regulation and Technology Are Taking Action, But Not Enough

The good news is that law enforcement is indeed stepping up efforts. Tether froze over $182 million in USDT in 2025, and such enforcement actions are becoming routine. According to data, between 2023 and 2025, Tether has frozen about $3.3 billion in assets and blacklisted 7,268 wallet addresses.

However, Chainalysis’s conclusion is straightforward: relying solely on post-event law enforcement will still be insufficient to curb risks after 2026. The report recommends that countries should:

• Strengthen real-time fraud monitoring systems
• Improve cross-border cooperation capabilities
• Allocate resources simultaneously at regulatory and technological levels

Personal Prevention Is Also Crucial

Security experts’ advice boils down to a few practical points:

• Assume all unsolicited information may be risky
• Never disclose private keys or verification codes
• Use multi-factor authentication to reduce reliance on trust
• Be skeptical of official-sounding messages and verify directly through official channels

Summary

The 1400% increase in impersonation scams is not just a number; it reflects a systemic evolution of scam techniques. The addition of AI has accelerated this evolution, transforming scams from isolated incidents into an industry. By 2026, this has become an unavoidable systemic challenge in the crypto market.

Whether regulators, exchanges, or ordinary users, everyone needs to recognize that this is not a risk that will automatically fade away. Strengthening defenses, raising awareness, and building multi-layered security systems are the practical paths to address this challenge.