TRM Labs' 2026 Crypto Crime Report identifies illicit cryptocurrency flows reaching an all-time high of $158 billion in 2025, up approximately 145% from $64.5 billion in 2024, reversing a multi-year decline. Chainalysis' parallel report estimates that crypto scams generated at least $14 billion in on-chain losses — potentially exceeding $17 billion — while impersonation scams posted 1,400% year-over-year growth.
Sanctions-related activity drove the largest shift, growing over 400% year-on-year according to TRM, overwhelmingly linked to Russian networks — particularly the ruble-pegged stablecoin A7A5 ($72 billion in volume) and the A7 wallet cluster ($39 billion) — which function as Kremlin-backed sanctions evasion infrastructure. Hacks and exploits caused $2.87 billion in losses across approximately 150 incidents, with the February Bybit breach alone accounting for $1.46 billion (51%) — TRM attributes $1.92 billion in total to North Korean actors. Chainalysis found that AI-enabled scams proved 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods, with average scam payments rising from $782 to $2,764, while Chinese-language money laundering networks and guarantee services — led by the sanctioned Cambodian Huione Group, which peaked at $4.7 billion in monthly inflows — remain the financial backbone of Southeast Asian scam compounds. The ransomware ecosystem saw 93 new variants emerge in 2025 (a 94% increase), Russian-language darknet markets generated $1.7 billion in inflows (up 20%), and Chinese drug precursor manufacturers continued a sharp upward trend. Law enforcement achieved historic actions: the UK seized 61,000 bitcoin (approximately £5 billion), while the U.S. DOJ indicted the Prince Group transnational criminal organisation with $15 billion in associated asset forfeitures.
Both reports emphasise that while illicit activity reached record absolute levels, its proportional share declined — TRM measured illicit volume at 1.2% of total on-chain activity (down from 1.3% in 2024) — indicating the broader crypto ecosystem's growth outpaces illicit use, even as state-level actors, particularly Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, have institutionalised cryptocurrency as durable financial infrastructure.
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