31 Crypto Fraud in India vs. 66 Bank Frauds: 2024–25 Report

Crypto Fraud 2024–25: Rising Fraud Trend in India and $12B Global Loss

Is 2025 becoming the most dangerous year yet for crypto investors? According to recent reports, global crypto fraud have reached alarming new heights—driven by AI-generated deception, organized fraud networks, and record-breaking thefts from exchanges and personal wallets.

India’s Fraud Landscape: Crypto Scams on the Rise

Enforcement Directorate (ED) 2024–25 statistics present a harrowing picture of the transformation of India's fraud landscape. While there were 31 cybercrime in 2024 and 2025, 66 bank frauds were seen in the same time frame. Even as old-fashioned bank and real state scams are reducing, cybercrime cases have increased leaps and bounds—mirroring increasing risks of digital assets.

Source: ED Report

From nearly zero cases prior to 2018, digital asset scams have risen to 122 total cases, the greatest increase among all forms of fraud monitored by the ED. Bank scams continue at number one with 1,228 total cases, peaking during 2020–21, and property scams totaled 162 cases. India has seen a total of 4,823 cases of fraud overall, increasing dramatically after 2018—demonstrating how financial crime is evolving with emerging technology.

ED's Challenge: Rising to Meet a New Generation of Cyber Crime

The ED report indicates that fraud continues to be one of the most prevalent predicate crimes for money laundering under PMLA. The fast pace of digital innovation has rendered crypto scams more difficult to detect and prosecute. With an increasing number of transactions online, cyber and digital assets fraud has become an emerging challenge—fueled by the anonymity and borderless nature of cryptocurrencies.

This dynamic threat landscape now comes with along with it complex hacking, ransomware, and cryptocurrency investment fraud, which prey on users' innocence and naivety. The ED is also augmenting its investigation capacity more but the rate of innovation in the fraudulent methods still outpaces regulatory ability.

Global Crypto Scams Value $12.4B in 2024: Chainalysis Report

Worldwide, the Chainalysis 2025 Crime Report is also, if not worse, in its representation. Scams in cryptocurrency earned scammers $9.9 billion in 2024, the sum estimated to reach more than $12.4 billion when scam addresses are all found.

Among the quickest-growing cons is "pig butchering"  — a fusion romance-investment scam where scammers establish emotional relationships before convincing marks to invest in fake schemes. These cons increased virtually 40% year-on-year, showing the manner in which emotional manipulation today is being coupled with financial theft.

While that occurs, cyberthieves use more and more AI to produce deepfakes, impersonate human beings, and build fake investment websites so that fake sites are almost indistinguishable from legitimate sites. One of these dark web networks, Huione Guarantee, has enabled tens of billions of digital assets transactions since 2021, enabling crooks to purchase AI scam tools and infrastructure and making the entire theft pipeline an expert business.

2025: Highest Year of Crypto Theft on Record

Up to mid-2025, the total worth hacked from cryptocurrency exchanges was more than $2.17 billion, and this year is worse than the entire year 2024. The DPRK hack of ByBit worth $1.5 billion is the biggest crypto heist in history.

Source: Chainalysis

Most significantly, 2025 reached the $2 billion steal threshold in just 142 days, falling from 214 in 2022—last year's worst ever. Breaches on personal wallets now account for 23.35% of stolen cryptocurrencies, with hackers now targeting users directly instead of exchanges. Even old-fashioned "wrench attacks," where victims are threatened at gunpoint to transfer crypto, have risen—often coinciding with spikes in Bitcoin prices.

If the current trends continue, 2025 may end with more than $4.3 billion swindled from services, highlighting the increased pace and sophistication of cybercrime.

Conclusion

The numbers tell a dismal story—crypto scams are cropping up quicker than ever. From AI-fabricated theft to individual wallet thefts, the danger vector is growing beyond the control of regulators. While blockchain technology accelerates adoption, global authorities need to step up cross-border coordination and public education to protect users in this quickly-digitizing financial landscape.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only, not to be considered as financial advice. Do your own research before investing.