Despite the increasing market volatility, crypto enthusiasts express cautious optimism. Bitcoin has surged past the $100,000 mark, riding high on a wave of institutional investment, record demand for spot ETFs, and renewed public enthusiasm. This wave began with a tentative uptick in late 2023, dipped afterward, and has since rebounded into strong bullish momentum. The overall surge was supercharged by the April 2024 Bitcoin halving, Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance, and a macroeconomic climate increasingly favorable to decentralized assets.

Slowly but steadily, a real infrastructure is forming beneath the hype. Crypto is being taken seriously, not just by tech-savvy millennials or DeFi degens, but by governments, asset managers, and even pension funds. As geopolitical tension and economic volatility persist, digital assets are increasingly viewed as a kind of financial safe haven—neutral, borderless, and resilient.

However, this fertile soil is bringing out fraudsters.

Where there’s money, there are scams. And with crypto, the scams are getting more sophisticated, and attacks—more frequent and more dangerous. The rise of generative AI has made it easier than ever to create convincing phishing schemes, fake identities, and deepfake videos—all used to part people from their crypto funds. Every year, new scams emerge, often evolving faster than many platforms or regulators can predict and react.

And the numbers are indeed disturbing. In 2024, Americans lost an estimated $9.3 billion to crypto fraud, according to the FBI.

Crypto has long been hailed as the future of finance—but if that future is going to be inclusive, sustainable, and reliable, both businesses and users need to prioritize security, which is foundational.

If you think you’re too smart to get scammed, you’re already a target. From social engineering playbooks to surgical exploits, crypto scams in 2025 are sharper than ever. Let’s check out the most common scams out there—and the smart practices every user and business should adopt to stay one step ahead of scammers.

8 ways scammers will go after users’ crypto in 2025
The popularity of specific crypto scams changes over time. High-yield investment scams and “pig butchering” schemes have become the most common, while AI-driven tactics make crypto fraud more sophisticated and harder to detect. Here’s the list of the most dangerous scams crypto enthusiasts should be aware of in 2025:

1. AI-generated deepfake scams
A deepfake scam uses AI-generated video or audio to impersonate trusted figures—such as family members, CEOs, or influencers—in order to trick victims into sending cryptocurrency or revealing sensitive information. These highly realistic forgeries make scams more convincing and difficult to detect, and their use has been on the rise in both traditional finance and the crypto space. In recent years, scammers have widely used AI-generated deepfake videos of Elon Musk to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency giveaways on platforms like YouTube. In one documented case from June 2024, a deepfake Musk video was used during a live YouTube stream to solicit funds. The scammer’s wallet received contributions from multiple victims within 20 minutes, ultimately collecting at least $5 million between March 2024 and January 2025. These funds were traced to major exchanges such as MEXC and even to darknet markets.

2. “Too good to be true” investments
Scammers posing as savvy “investment managers” promise sky-high returns—if you just send them some crypto first. It’s classic social engineering, dressed up as financial opportunity.

These scammers usually have legitimate-looking websites or well-designed apps, using fancy investing jargon to seem real.

In May 2025, a resident of Warriewood, Australia, reported a loss of nearly $64,000 to a cryptocurrency investment scam. The victim was initially contacted via the Signal messaging app in June 2024 about an investment opportunity, starting with a $500 outlay and a promise of a tenfold return. He invested more with a company called Ultra Trade Investments, encouraged by the promised returns. However, when attempting to withdraw profits, he was told to pay additional fees. Over several months, he continued to pay and realized it was a scam when he could not recover his funds.

That same month, a 57-year-old woman from Limassol, Cyprus, was convinced to do fraudulent “cryptocurrency investments” during November and December. The scam came to light when she unsuccessfully tried to withdraw her supposed profits—resulting in a total loss of 37,000 euros ($41,600).

3. DeFi rug pulls
In 2025, DeFi rug pulls are a growing form of cryptocurrency scam where developers of a decentralized finance project suddenly withdraw all user funds and disappear, leaving investors with worthless tokens. These scams are becoming more complex, with tactics such as “honeypot tokens” (where malicious smart contracts prevent users from selling the tokens) and multi-wallet control strategies to evade detection.

Rug pulls have decreased in frequency by 66% year-over-year, with only 7 incidents recorded in early 2025 compared to 21 in the same period of 2024. However, the financial damage has skyrocketed. Losses from this scam reached nearly $6 billion in early 2025, up from $90 million in early 2024.

The nature of rug pulls is evolving, with a shift from DeFi protocols and NFT projects in 2024 to predominantly memecoin-related rug pulls in 2025. Memecoins have often been behind these schemes, as the hype around them rapidly gains traction before scammers disappear with user funds.

One recent high-profile case is the Meteora memecoin scam. The lawsuit accused Meteora, its founder Benjamin Chow, venture firm Kelsier Labs, and several executives of manipulating the price of the Solana-based M3M3 token for personal profit at the expense of public investors. According to the complaint, insiders used over 150 wallets to acquire up to 95% of the token supply within 20 minutes of its launch, while restricting access to public buyers. This allowed them to artificially inflate the token’s price through coordinated internal trading. Once the price spiked, the insiders allegedly sold off their holdings, triggering a sharp market crash. The suit claims that investors lost over $69 million between December 2024 and February 2025. Filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the lawsuit also seeks to classify stake-based meme coins as securities, which aims to bring greater regulatory clarity to similar crypto assets.

Another notable example is Kokomo Finance rug pull. Developers of this DeFi lending protocol on Ethereum’s Optimism network disappeared with over $5.5 million in user funds. They initially deployed legitimate code but later switched to a malicious version to drain liquidity. The project’s website and social media were deleted soon after.

4. Phishing
Phishing is a classic scam that’s now widespread in the crypto world. It’s used to compromise login credentials, such as crypto wallet keys. Usually scammers send an official-looking email that asks the victim to log in to their account—which is actually a trap:
In one documented case, a victim from California was scammed by an individual impersonating a support team member of the DeFi project Arkadiko Finance. After the victim posted a question in the project’s official Discord support channel, the scammer quickly created a private message thread, posing as a community leader offering assistance. The scammer directed the victim to a fraudulent website, ren.digl.live, and instructed them to verify their wallet on the site. Trusting the request, the victim entered their wallet’s seed phrase into the platform. After receiving an error message, the victim attempted to resubmit the phrase. Shortly after, the platform became unresponsive. Within an hour, the victim discovered their crypto wallet had been compromised. They report a loss of at least $100,000 as a result of interacting with the fake site.

Phishing scams often serve as the entry point for ransomware by tricking users into clicking malicious links or downloading infected files. Once inside, the ransomware encrypts personal data or accesses crypto wallets, then demands cryptocurrency payments to unlock access—blending deception, malware, and extortion in one attack.

For example, a California resident was scammed via a fake crypto-airdrop link, which led to their hardware wallet being hacked and a loss of $7,855. The scammers then demanded additional payments to “unstake” the assets, a form of ransomware/extortion targeting a person.

5. False giveaways
A crypto giveaway scam is when fraudsters pose as legit cryptocurrency exchanges, businesses, or notable individuals to deceive victims into sending them cryptocurrency. They typically promise to return double or triple the amount sent by the victim—only to vanish with the funds once received.

These scams are frequently promoted on social media platforms like X and YouTube and often involve fake websites resembling legitimate exchanges or companies.
In 2025, crypto scammers are increasingly using deepfakes to impersonate famous figures—like Elon Musk (once again!) and Donald Trump—to promote fraudulent giveaways on X.

Watch out for the following red flags to identify a crypto giveaway scam:

The giveaway is promoted on social media or dubious websites
It promises to return more cryptocurrency than you send
It requires you to send cryptocurrency to a specified address
It creates a sense of urgency or scarcity by claiming limited time or participant availability
If you encounter a crypto giveaway, be skeptical and do research to verify its legitimacy before sending any cryptocurrency. To avoid falling victim to such scams, consider these tips:

Only participate in giveaways offered by reputable cryptocurrency exchanges or companies
Avoid sending cryptocurrency to a specific address to participate in a giveaway
Be cautious of giveaways promising excessive returns on your investment
Exercise caution with giveaways that impose a sense of urgency or scarcity.

6. Pig butchering scam
Pig butchering is a long-term scam where fraudsters build trust—often through romance or social networking—before convincing a victim to invest in fake crypto platforms. Once the victim has deposited significant funds, the scammer disappears, taking all the money. It’s called this way because scammers “fatten up” their victims with attention and trust before “slaughtering” them by stealing their funds.

According to estimates, more than $75 billion USD may have been stolen from victims worldwide through pig butchering scams since 2020. Chainalysis reports that pig butchering scam activity grew in 2024. And this trend is likely to persist in the following years.

In April 2025, a woman from Maryland, US, lost millions of dollars in a pig butchering scam, where scammers (allegedly based in Southeast Asia) gained her trust and convinced her to invest increasing amounts into fraudulent crypto accounts. After the initial scam, she was targeted again by fake “recovery” companies promising to retrieve her lost funds for a fee—a common secondary fraud tactic.