Crypto scams drained an estimated $80.7 billion from Americans in 2025 — roughly seven times the $11.4 billion in reported losses. That's according to a new survey of 5,000 adults conducted by the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies.
How they got the number
The $80.7 billion figure comes from a survey, not just from complaints filed with regulators. The FTC and partner agencies asked 5,000 adults about their experiences with crypto scams. They then applied an underreporting rate derived from a 2017 survey on fraud reporting to estimate the true scale.
The result: for every dollar reported lost, roughly six more went unreported. That's a massive gap — and it means the official numbers we've been seeing barely scratch the surface.
Why the gap matters
Reported losses alone already made crypto scams a headline issue. The $11.4 billion in 2025 filings dwarfed previous years. But the survey suggests the actual harm is far worse. Regulators and law enforcement rely on complaint data to allocate resources. If the real number is $80.7 billion, they're operating with a fraction of the picture.
The underreporting isn't surprising. Many victims don't file complaints — they're embarrassed, don't know where to go, or assume nothing will be done. The 2017 survey that provided the underreporting rate was about general fraud, but the FTC applied it here to crypto specifically.
What comes next
The FTC hasn't announced new rules or enforcement actions based on this survey. But the data will likely inform how agencies prioritize crypto fraud going forward. For now, the takeaway is blunt: the scam problem is much bigger than the official tally suggests, and the gap between reported and actual losses is only getting wider.
