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FBI Says Americans Lost $9.3B to Crypto Scams in 2024

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Americans reported a record $9.3 billion in losses to cryptocurrency-related crimes in 2024, according to a report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The losses represent a 66% jump from 2023 and highlight the growing use of digital assets in online fraud schemes.

The annual IC3 report says nearly 150,000 complaints linked to crypto, with investment fraud leading the way. In these schemes, scammers often pretend to offer high returns on fake cryptocurrency platforms, coaxing victims to transfer funds that are then siphoned away.

The FBI also spotlighted “pig butchering” scams, where fraudsters build online relationships before pushing fake crypto investments. Crypto investment schemes led to $5.8 billion in losses, while the second-largest category by losses at $1.1 billion were data breaches.

Elderly Americans bore the brunt of the damage. Individuals over 60 reported $2.8 billion in losses through crypto-related crimes—more than any other age group— up from $1.65 billion in 2023 and $1.08 billion in 2022.

The second-most affected age group, those aged 40-49, suffered $1.4 billion in losses, while those under the age of 40 suffered combined losses of around $1.37 billion.

Over 8,000 of the complaints stemmed from people over 60 and related to fake investment opportunities, while others fell victim to tech support fraud and impersonation schemes, often involving cryptocurrency ATMs.

Operation Level Up, a government initiative launched in January 2024, identified thousands of victims of crypto investment fraud and prevented an estimated $285 million in further losses, per the report. It referred 42 victims for suicide intervention.

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Nasdaq Tells SEC Precise Crypto Labeling Will Be Everything in Future Regulation

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Nasdaq, the operator of one of the premier U.S. stock exchanges and a crypto index, is advising the U.S. regulators to carefully focus on defining digital assets in four buckets that will clearly determine which agency acts as referee, according to a 23-page letter sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crypto task force.

«While a stock by any other word would still be a stock, the existing market ecosystem can readily absorb digital assets by establishing the proper taxonomy and calibrating certain rules to reflect what is truly new and novel about digital assets,» the letter argued in response to the invitation issued by the task force’s chief, Commissioner Hester Peirce, to weigh in on future regulations.

The four future categories of digital assets, in Nasdaq’s view, should be:

  • financial securities (tokens tied to assets that are securities under existing definitions, like stocks, bonds and exchange-traded funds (ETFS), which Nasdaq said should be treated just the same as their underlying assets);
  • digital asset investment contracts (tokenized contracts that check all the securities boxes under a «clarified version» of the Supreme Court’s so-called Howey test);
  • digital asset commodities (meeting the U.S. definition of commodities)
  • other digital assets (stuff that doesn’t fall anywhere else and shouldn’t have rules for securities or commodities imposed on it)

The securities categories belong in the hands of the SEC, which will be working with its cousin agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, that will handle the commodities. Those agencies — presumably directed at some point by a new crypto law hatched by Congress — will figure out the precise border between their jurisdictions.

The letter, signed by John Zecca, the company’s chief regulator executive, argued that «digital assets that constitute financial securities must trade as they do today.»

Nasdaq also suggested that the two agencies should formulate a kind of crossover trading designation for platforms that can handle digital asset investment contracts, commodities and other types of assets under one roof.

In the letter, Nasdaq underlined its digital-asset credibility, saying its «trading and clearing services, market and trading surveillance, and central securities depository technology support digital assets platforms on six continents.» It contended that the regulators should consider imposing safety measures or further constraints on firms that want to handle investors’ activity from top to bottom, which is the common approach of existing crypto firms.

Read More: SEC ‘Earnest’ About Finding Workable Crypto Policy, Commissioners Say at Roundtable

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Want to Have Dinner With the U.S. President? All You Would Need Is to Hold $420 Worth of TRUMP

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The team behind the Trump memecoin said Thursday that the top 220 holders on its list, where the smallest wallet holds $420 worth of TRUMP, are eligible to win dinner with President Donald Trump, contrary to rumors that a six-figure token stash was required.

“We want to clarify a few things people seem confused by on X and in the Media,” the team’s X account posted. “You need $300K+ to participate (You Don’t); That we’re unlocking into this competition (We’re Not).”

TRUMP surged 70% this week, trading at around $12 as of Thursday, mainly driven by hype around the so-called “Dinner with Trump” event, according to CoinDesk’s earlier reporting.

Some users on X claimed that only holders with more than $300,000 in tokens could participate. Others speculated that the wallet ranked 220 on a blockchain explorer was the minimum cutoff.

The team dismissed both claims, stating that users must register via the official leaderboard and that only time-weighted holdings during the competition will count.

Currently, the leaderboard’s top wallet, under the pseudonym “Sun,” holds over 1.1 million TRUMP tokens, worth nearly $14 million. The 220th spot was held by “HAR,” with just 35.3 TRUMP tokens, or about $420 in dollar terms.

Twenty five wallets are listed as VIPs on the leaderboard, where the cut-off holder sits on over $400,000 worth of TRUMP.

The team also addressed concerns about token unlocks affecting the leaderboard, stating that both the cliff unlock and subsequent daily unlocks would remain inaccessible for 90 days, outlasting the competition itself.

“We want to say again that the tokens from the initial cliff unlock and the following 3 months of daily unlocks will remain locked, each for an additional 90 days,” it said.

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CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: SUI Surges 13.7% as Index Trades Higher from Thursday

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CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2774.43, up 1.5% (+40.48) since 4 p.m. ET on Thursday.

Eighteen of 20 assets are trading higher.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2025-04-25: chart

Leaders: SUI (+13.7%) and BCH (+7.1%).

Laggards: POL (-1.9%) and ADA (-0.5%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

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