Cryptocurrency Theft

Americans reported more than $11.3 billion in cryptocurrency-related losses in 2025 alone, a 22% jump from the year before, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2025 Annual Report. Crypto-related fraud is no longer a niche problem. It's one of the largest categories of financial crime in the country.

At Kronenberger Rosenfeld, we've spent years at the intersection of internet law and financial technology. We've sued major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Crypto.com, and Binance US, on behalf of theft victims, and we've helped establish new legal precedent that holds crypto platforms accountable when their compliance failures enable fraud. If you've lost cryptocurrency to a scam, a hack, or an exchange that dropped the ball on security, you may have more legal options than you realize.

Cryptocurrency Theft Online Scams

When was the last time you went a week without hearing about an online scam? According to the FBI's 2025 IC3 report, the agency logged 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints in 2025, a 21% increase over 2024, with an average reported loss of $62,604 per victim. Crypto investment fraud, commonly known as "pig butchering," accounted for $7.2 billion of those losses on its own, up 25% year over year.

• 2023: Roughly $5.6 billion in reported cryptocurrency losses

• 2024: $9.3 billion, a 66% jump from the prior year

• 2025: $11.366 billion, another 22% increase, per the FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report

Every year, criminals get more sophisticated, exchanges add more users, and the total dollar amount at risk keeps climbing.

Elder Financial Abuse

Older Americans are absorbing an outsized share of that damage. Adults 60 and older reported over $4.3 billion in crypto-related losses in 2025, nearly 38% of all crypto fraud losses nationwide, despite representing a much smaller slice of the population. That's not a coincidence. It's a targeting strategy.

We have paved the way for crypto exchange liability in elder financial abuse litigation. Learn more about Lee vs. Crypto.com.

Crypto Theft Schemes

Cryptocurrency theft rarely looks like a masked hacker typing furiously in a dark room. Most of it is quieter, more patient, and dressed up to look completely legitimate. Here are the tactics we see most often in our cases.

Pig Butchering Scams

Named for the way scammers "fatten up" a victim before the loss, pig butchering scams start slow. A stranger reaches out on a dating app, social media, or even a "wrong-number" text, and over weeks or months, builds what feels like a genuine friendship or romance. Eventually, they introduce a crypto investment opportunity, walking the victim through setting up an exchange account and making an initial deposit. Early performance appears impressive, and sometimes victims can even withdraw a small amount, keeping them emotionally and financially invested in the scheme. When the victim tries to withdraw the full balance, they hit a wall: additional "taxes," "fees," or verification requirements that never end. By then, the funds are usually long gone.

Exchange Hacks and Security Failures

Sometimes the exchange itself is the weak link in a crypto theft scam. Inadequate two-factor authentication, poor wallet segregation, or slow response to known vulnerabilities can leave customer funds exposed to outside attackers. When an exchange's negligence opens the door to theft, that exchange can potentially be held liable for the resulting losses.

SIM Swap Attacks

In a SIM swap, a criminal convinces (or bribes) a mobile carrier employee to transfer a victim's phone number to a SIM card the criminal controls. Once that happens, they can intercept two-factor authentication codes sent by text message, effectively picking the lock on bank accounts, email, and crypto wallets in one move.

Spoofed Exchange Websites and Apps

Some scammers skip real exchanges entirely and build convincing fakes: cloned websites, lookalike apps, and fabricated dashboards showing account balances that were never real. Victims deposit funds into what they believe is a legitimate platform, only to find withdrawals permanently "processing."

Call Center and Tech Support Impersonation

These scams rely on borrowed authority. A caller claims to be from your bank's fraud department, a well-known exchange, or even a government agency, warning that your account is compromised and that you need to "secure" your funds immediately, usually by moving them into a wallet the scammer controls.

"Recovery" Scams

After a victim loses money to one scam, a second scammer contacts them posing as an asset recovery specialist, law firm, or government investigator, offering to get the stolen funds back for an upfront fee. It's a scam layered on top of a scam, and it's become common enough that the FBI now tracks it as its own crime category, with reported losses exceeding $1.4 billion in 2025.

Older Investors Are Being Targeted in Online Scams

If you're helping a parent or grandparent navigate a crypto loss, you're not alone, and it's not a coincidence that they were targeted. Scammers view older adults as ideal marks: many are less familiar with how crypto exchanges and two-factor authentication actually work, some are managing significant retirement savings, and isolation (especially after the loss of a spouse) can make a scammer's manufactured "relationship" feel especially convincing.

The FBI's elder fraud data backs this up in stark terms. Complaints from adults 60 and older jumped 37% in 2025, while their reported losses jumped 59%, reaching $7.75 billion across all fraud types. Within that, cryptocurrency investment fraud was the single costliest category for older victims, at $2.76 billion. Kronenberger Rosenfeld has taken direct legal action on this front: our firm filed a groundbreaking case, Lee v. Foris Dax, Inc. (Crypto.com), on behalf of an elder financial abuse victim, alleging that the exchange, a bank, and a financial advisor failed to prevent, and effectively enabled, a scam targeting the plaintiff's husband.

You May Have More Legal Options Than You Think

A common misconception is that stolen crypto is simply gone, that there's no one to sue and nothing to recover. That's often not true, and recent legal developments have made it even less true.

In a major win for victims, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in Lee v. Foris Dax, Inc. that private litigants can hold cryptocurrency exchanges liable for pig butchering and elder financial abuse under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). Kronenberger Rosenfeld attorneys Karl Kronenberger and Galen Cheney developed this legal theory, arguing that exchanges classified as "money transmitters" under the BSA have an obligation to maintain effective anti-money laundering programs, and can be held accountable when they don't. Read more about the ruling and why it matters.

Depending on the facts of your case, potential legal theories include:

• Bank Secrecy Act violations against exchanges that failed to implement adequate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (KYC) safeguards

• Negligence claims against exchanges or banks that ignored red flags, such as unusual transaction patterns consistent with fraud

• Breach of fiduciary duty and misrepresentation where an exchange, advisor, or institution misled a victim about the security of their funds

• Unfair business practices claims under statutes like California's Business & Professions Code §§17200 and 17500

• Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) claims for unauthorized transfers processed through a bank or crypto-linked account, which can allow recovery of the transfer amount plus statutory and even treble damages in certain circumstances

• Data disclosure and doxing claims against platforms that improperly hand over sensitive account information, as alleged in our firm's recent lawsuit against Kraken over a data disclosure that allegedly enabled an extortion plot

The right theory depends heavily on exactly how the theft happened and who had a duty to prevent it. That's why an early conversation with an experienced cryptocurrency theft attorney matters. Waiting too long can also cost you options entirely, since claims under statutes like the EFTA carry a one-year statute of limitations.

Cryptocurrency Theft Litigation

Kronenberger Rosenfeld isn't a general practice firm that happens to take crypto cases. We built our reputation representing clients in complex internet, technology, and financial disputes, and cryptocurrency litigation has become a core part of that work. Our attorneys have:

• Represented individual clients against large cryptocurrency exchanges for negligence that allowed tens of millions of dollars in theft

• Filed a $22 million federal lawsuit against a bank, financial institution, and cryptocurrency exchange

• Represented an entire class of victims against a cryptocurrency exchange, relying on blockchain and wallet forensic analysis to trace stolen funds across both private and exchange-held wallets

• Filed suit against a crypto exchange, financial institution, and financial advisor for enabling a scam targeting an elderly victim's spouse

• Secured a first-of-its-kind ruling allowing private plaintiffs to pursue Bank Secrecy Act claims against a crypto exchange

Our firm has taken on some of the biggest names in the industry, including Coinbase, Crypto.com, Binance US, Blockchain.com, Unchained, Uphold, Gemini, and Kraken. That litigation experience matters because these cases are technical. Tracing a transaction across multiple wallets and exchanges takes real forensic skill, not just legal knowledge.

What We Need to Investigate Your Cryptocurrency Theft Claim

If you're ready to talk to us about a potential case, it helps to gather a few things in advance so we can evaluate your matter quickly:

• A short narrative describing what happened, including every person, company, or exchange involved

• The total amount lost, expressed in both the cryptocurrency itself and its US dollar value at the time

• Your age and location, along with the location of any other parties involved, if known

• A chronology of the theft, with dates and times where available

• Every wallet address involved, both yours and any known addresses belonging to the bad actor

• Transaction IDs for each transfer connected to the theft

What to Do Right Now If You've Been Scammed

Time matters after a crypto theft. Every hour that passes gives a scammer more time to move funds through additional wallets, exchanges, or mixing services, which makes tracing (and ultimately recovering) those funds harder. If you suspect you're a victim:

1. Stop sending money immediately. Cut off any recurring transfers, and don't send "one more payment" no matter what story you're told.

2. Secure your accounts. Change passwords and enable two-factor authentication on your bank, brokerage, and crypto exchange accounts right away.

3. Contact your bank and any exchange involved. Ask them to flag the transactions and, if possible, freeze or reverse any pending transfers.

4. Document everything. Save every message, email, screenshot, wallet address, and transaction ID connected to the scam. This becomes the evidence base for any legal claim.

5. Report it to the FBI's IC3 at ic3.gov and, if applicable, your state's financial regulator.

6. Talk to a cryptocurrency theft lawyer before you talk to anyone claiming they can "recover" your funds for an upfront fee. If it sounds like a second scam, it probably is.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I actually get my stolen cryptocurrency back?
It depends on the facts, but recovery is often more possible than people assume. Blockchain transactions are permanently recorded, which can help attorneys trace stolen funds to specific wallets or exchanges. Combine that with legal theories like Bank Secrecy Act claims or negligence claims against an exchange, and victims sometimes have real paths to recovery, especially when an institution's compliance failures contributed to the loss.

Is my case too small for a law firm to take?
Not necessarily. While six and seven-figure losses often make headlines, many firms, including ours, evaluate cases based on the strength of the facts and the potential for institutional liability, not just the dollar amount.

How long do I have to file a claim after cryptocurrency theft?
It varies by legal theory. Some claims, like those under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, carry a one-year statute of limitations, while others may allow more time. The safest move is to consult an attorney as soon as possible after discovering the theft.

Can cryptocurrency exchanges really be held legally responsible for scams?
Yes, increasingly so. The 2025 federal court ruling in Lee v. Foris Dax, Inc. confirmed that private victims can pursue Bank Secrecy Act claims against exchanges that fail to maintain adequate anti-money laundering safeguards, opening a new avenue for accountability nationwide.

What if the scammer is overseas or anonymous?
That complicates, but doesn't necessarily end, a case. Many claims target the domestic institutions, exchanges, or banks, that processed or enabled the transfer, rather than the anonymous scammer directly.

Talk to a Cryptocurrency Theft Attorney Today

Cryptocurrency theft moves fast, and so should your response. Whether you lost funds to a pig butchering scheme, an exchange security failure, or a scam targeting an aging parent, Kronenberger Rosenfeld's attorneys have the litigation experience and blockchain forensic knowledge to evaluate what happened and fight for accountability. Contact us through our online case submission form.