Odaily Planet Daily report: According to the latest analysis report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), approximately $12.7 billion in suspicious financial activity is linked to cryptocurrency investment scams operated by fraud hubs in Southeast Asia. The report covers 33,904 Suspicious Activity Reports submitted by around 1,300 institutions between September 2023 and December 2025, with the monthly average number of reports increasing by 10.9% and the monthly average amount involved rising by 18%.
Scammers primarily operate using Ethereum, USDT, and USDC, ultimately converting nearly all illicit funds into USDT and transferring them via DeFi protocols or overseas exchanges. Fraud hubs are concentrated in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, involving hundreds of thousands of trafficked individuals. INTERPOL has classified this network as a transnational criminal threat and warned that this modus operandi is spreading beyond Southeast Asia. Additionally, it has been disclosed that FinCEN’s Rapid Response Program has recovered over $1 billion for 5,790 U.S. victims since 2015. (Decrypt)