Pig-Butchering Scams Escalate into a Major National Security Threat, Chainalysis Warns
Chainalysis and anti-fraud investigators have described pig-butchering scams as a growing national security concern. This was discussed in a recent podcast featuring Andrew Fierman from Chainalysis and Erin West from Operation Shamrock. The scam model now combines elements of human trafficking, money laundering, and crypto fraud, expanding beyond traditional scams and requiring increased awareness from banks, exchanges, and regulators.
Criminals employ long-term social engineering tactics via dating apps and social media to lure victims into fake crypto investment platforms. These victims are initially shown apparent profits but are later drained of their accounts. The operations also involve dormitory-style compounds in Southeast Asia where trafficked workers are coerced into running these schemes. While victims abroad lose life savings, the trafficked individuals are held and forced to operate these scams.
In 2024, pig-butchering scam activity rose by about 40%, contributing to over $9.9 billion in total crypto scam revenue for the year, according to Chainalysis. The U.S. Department of Justice seized about $225 million linked to these scams in 2023. The FBI reported that Americans lost over $9 billion to online investment fraud in the previous year. TRM Labs estimates that more than $53 billion in crypto-related fraud has been tracked globally since 2023, though this is likely an undercount.
Enforcement and private-sector actions in 2025 have intensified. In October 2025, the largest crypto seizure related to these scams was tied to the Prince Holding Group and Chen Zhi, with the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioning 146 related individuals and entities. Tether froze nearly $50 million in USDT linked to a Southeast Asian pig-butchering ring across 19 addresses. Binance joined the T3+ crime-fighting initiative, helping freeze nearly $6 million tied to another pig-butchering case. Binance reported preventing about 7.5 million users from losing nearly $10 billion to fraud between December 2022 and May 2025. Coinbase assisted the U.S. Secret Service in these efforts.
In June 2025, $225 million in USDT was recovered from 140 OKX accounts, many connected to trafficking victims coerced into operating these scams. The pig-butchering scam threat continues to escalate in scale and impact across global enforcement and financial networks.
