What's the biggest single cause of crypto losses for ordinary people?

The full answer

By reported losses, the biggest single cause in the FBI’s figures is crypto investment fraud: the IC3 says it was the highest source of financial losses to Americans in 2025, with $7.2 billion reported in losses [4]. The IC3 counted 61,559 such complaints, a 48% increase from 2024, and losses rose 25% [4]. It sets out what the sources do show and what they do not.

What do the sources show about where losses come from?

The largest single event in the sources is an exchange theft. 24/7 Wall St. reported that hackers took $351.6 million from Bitget, and that a large part of it sits beyond the reach of any organization that might try to stop them [1]. The news.bitcoin.com passage gives only navigation and headline text, so it says nothing on whether customer balances were affected. The page on what happened in the Bitget theft covers that question, and the page on how exchanges get hacked explains the mechanism.

The sources also show a scam case that went to a regulator. These are charges, not findings of fact by a court. The case is described only by a headline, so how the alleged scams worked is not known and no mechanism is claimed here. The page on online crypto profit scams covers how these schemes work.

Which figure covers the most losses?

No source gives the share of crypto losses borne by ordinary people, so this page does not give one.

What is the strongest evidence against a “scams first” answer?

This page was planned around the view that, by reported dollars, scams in which victims send funds themselves are far larger than hacks of individual wallets. The IC3’s 2025 report supports that view for reported losses to Americans: crypto investment fraud was the highest source of financial losses, with $7.2 billion reported [4]. The evidence that does exist points to breaches of custodians and bridges: the over-50% share for the first half of 2025 [2] and a $351.6 million exchange theft in September 2026 [1]. That evidence covers all losses, including those of firms, so it measures something different from the IC3’s count of reported losses [4]. The reasoning below sets out why these figures cannot be combined.

Are losses rising or falling year over year?

As of September 30, 2026, no year-over-year series of losses by cause has been found, so this page makes no claim about whether losses are rising or falling. The first-half 2025 share [2] and the September 2026 Bitget theft [1] cover different periods and different scopes. Comparing them does not produce a trend. Annual data by cause would be needed before any trend could be stated.

Can XRP be lost with no attacker at all?

No source this page relies on says whether XRP can be lost with no attacker involved. A separate page on losing XRP without being hacked takes up that question. No evidence on this page measures how much is lost this way.

What comes first after a scam or an account takeover?

The steps for reporting are on the page about how to spot and report an XRP scam. Account defences for coins held on a platform, such as security keys and withdrawal allowlists, are on the page about securing a crypto platform account.