Cross-chain crypto crimes surpasses $21 billion this year, tripling since 2023: Elliptic

The blockchain analytics firm Elliptic found bad actors transferred $21.8 billion in illicitly gained funds through decentralized exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and swap services so far in 2025, according to Elliptic's new report investigating cross-chain crypto crimes.

Of the $21 billion, about $2.5 billion, or 12%, originated from North Korean hackers, and about $300 million came from sanctioned Iranian crypto services. In total, cross-chain crypto crime more than tripled from the $7 billion Elliptic found in 2023, the report states.

Additionally, one-third of complex cross-chain investigations spanned over three blockchains, with 27% surpassing five and 20% using more than 10. Cross-chain crime activity could involve crypto investment scams, memecoin rug pulls, sectoral sanctions risks, and other forms of scamming activity, the report adds. A criminal might use cross-chain swaps to obscure the origin of their funds, launder money, or avoid certain crypto issuers, like Tether and Circle, from freezing their stablecoin assets.

While the full breadth of crypto-based illicit activity has yet to be determined, illicit on-chain volume reached $45 billion in 2024 — representing 0.4% of the $10.6 trillion in total crypto volume for the year, The Block previously reported. Within the same year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed individuals lost a total of $9.3 billion from nearly $150,000 crypto-related complaints, with people above 60 most likely to lose money to crypto-related scams.

"As the development of blockchain projects and AI innovation accelerates, scammers are likely to further capitalize on the general public interest and new technological capabilities to victimize crypto users. This is particularly the case during periods of market expansion (‘bull runs’), where interest in crypto (and therefore opportunities for scammers to target newcomers) often rises," Elliptic wrote in a July 4 report detailing crypto scams in 2025.

Bitcoin's recent price rally signals strong investor interest in the current crypto bull run; the asset reached its all-time high north of $120,000 on July 13, and analysts expect to see its price reach up to $200,000 by 2026. The world's largest cryptocurrency traded at $119,307 as of publication, increasing nearly 3% in price in the past 24 hours, according to The Block's BTC Price Page.

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