Phishing Scams and “Pig Butchering” Threaten Crypto Investors

[madtrader]

While protocol-level hacks are declining, phishing scams continue to cost crypto investors big. In 2025, these scams resulted in $722 million in losses across 248 incidents. A growing subset, known as “pig butchering” scams, uses prolonged emotional manipulation to steal funds—sometimes over weeks or months.

One recent case saw an investor lose their entire Bitcoin retirement fund to an AI-assisted romance scam. Blockchain security firm Cyvers notes that pig butchering scams previously cost $5.5 billion in 2024, highlighting that social engineering remains a persistent threat even as code vulnerabilities decline.

[johnblockbuster]

Scammers are getting creative