The US Department of Justice flagged three major crypto-related prosecutions in its 2025 Year in Review as part of an intensified crackdown on fraud.
The Justice Department said prosecutors charged 265 defendants last year with intended fraud losses exceeding $16 billion, more than double the total recorded the previous year.
Officials said cryptocurrency is increasingly embedded in traditional fraud schemes, prompting heightened enforcement priorities.
The Fraud Section highlighted a $1 billion Medicare-related scheme in which defendants allegedly targeted vulnerable patients and authorities later seized more than $7.2 million in assets, including cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors said a separate national healthcare fraud takedown led to charges against 324 individuals and seizures exceeding $245 million in cash, vehicles, cryptocurrency and other assets.
In another case, former Wolf Capital CEO Travis Ford was sentenced to five years in prison over a $9.4 million crypto investment fraud that targeted around 2,800 investors.
The Justice Department said the scheme promised daily returns of up to 2% while funds were diverted for personal use.
Lawmakers introduced the bipartisan SAFE Crypto Act last month to establish a federal task force aimed at reducing crypto-related scams.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged state lawmakers to criminalise unlicensed crypto operations, warning of a growing illicit economy exploiting regulatory gaps.
Ari Redbord of TRM Labs said AI-enabled fraud has increased by roughly 500%, accelerating the speed and scale of financial crime.
“The most important shift right now is speed. We've seen roughly a 500% increase in AI-enabled fraud, and that increase isn't just about volume—it's about how fast criminal operations can now move,”
Redbord said.
Redbord said criminal groups now run industrialised money laundering networks serving scam operations, ransomware groups and sanctioned actors.