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Deepfake scams surpass 2025 totals as AI adoption in fraud matures
TRM Labs said 2026 deepfake-scam losses are 263% higher than all of 2025, and AI use by scammers has risen about 13-fold since 2022.
Deepfake and other AI-enabled scams are driving a sharp rise in crypto fraud, with blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reporting that 2026 reported losses from deepfake scams have already exceeded last year’s total by 263%. In its new AI-in-Crime Adoption Index, TRM classified scams as the only crypto-crime category where artificial intelligence has reached a “Mature” level of adoption.
TRM said scam reports involving AI used on the scammer side, including deepfakes, chatbots, and AI-powered lures, have increased roughly 13-fold since 2022. The shift, TRM added, targets authorized users rather than breaking blockchain code, meaning smart-contract security alone may not prevent funds from being approved when a victim or signer is manipulated.
The report argues that even properly authenticated exchange accounts, correctly signed hardware-wallet transactions, and smart contracts that execute as programmed can still result in losses if a deepfake persuades the person controlling those systems to authorize a transfer. TRM said its index measures how widely AI is used across stages such as targeting and deception, as well as the sophistication of the tools involved.
TRM also noted that broader scam reports that mention AI have risen about 25-fold since 2022. Separately, Chainalysis reported that inflows to impersonation scams rose more than 1,400% year over year and that scam operations with visible on-chain links to AI service providers generated 4.5 times more revenue on average, while the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded 22,364 AI-related complaints with $893.35 million in associated reported losses, plus $11.37 billion in cryptocurrency-descriptor losses.