Trump is holding a meeting at the White House on Wednesday. The topic is neither tariffs nor the election, but fraud prevention.
A White House official told Reuters that Trump will announce a crackdown on overseas crypto scam networks targeting Americans at a Wednesday event focused on preventing cybercrime. There are two main priorities: seizing a number of fraudulent crypto investment websites and cracking down on online impersonation scams.
The guest list is top-tier: Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Miller, and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross will also attend. With Homeland Security, Defense, the FBI, and Justice all represented, this is clearly being treated as a national security issue.
Why now? The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has just released its 2025 annual report: it received more than 1 million internet crime complaints over the year, up 17% from the previous year. There were 181,565 crypto-related complaints, with losses totaling $11.4 billion, up 22%. Crypto investment scams accounted for $7.2 billion of that, with more than 61,000 complaints. Crypto losses among people aged 60 and over totaled $4.3 billion. Last year, the FBI’s “Operation Level Up” notified 3,780 potential victims and helped them avoid an estimated $226 million in further losses.
I think this crackdown is targeting not crypto itself, but telecom fraud compounds running “pig-butchering” scams. Crypto is simply the payment channel victims use; once the money is moved through fake trading platforms and digital wallets, recovering it becomes difficult. This doesn’t conflict with the Trump administration’s pro-business approach to crypto: one is about going after fraud, the other about promoting licensed markets.
But there’s also a real contradiction: in the same Reuters report, a Reuters investigation says the Trump family’s crypto businesses have brought the family at least $2.3 billion in wealth, while investors who followed suit lost $2.3 billion. As the administration cracks down on overseas scams, the media is also calling attention to conflicts of interest involving the family’s own crypto businesses. The White House response was that “everything is being done in the best interests of the American people.” Which side do you believe?
I think the impact on the industry is a double-edged sword. In the short term, the headlines are somewhat bearish: as enforcement ramps up, trading channels in gray areas will have to tighten up. In the long run, cleaning up scams is a good thing. After all, the GENIUS Act has just become law, and the OCC issued its first-ever final stablecoin rule last week. Both legislation and enforcement are moving toward bringing the industry into compliance.
Do you think this crackdown on scams is for real, or just for show?
#TrumpExpectedToOutlineCrackdownOnOverseasCryptoScams
#反诈 #FBI
$BTC
The above does not constitute investment advice. DYOR; trading involves risk.
A White House official told Reuters that Trump will announce a crackdown on overseas crypto scam networks targeting Americans at a Wednesday event focused on preventing cybercrime. There are two main priorities: seizing a number of fraudulent crypto investment websites and cracking down on online impersonation scams.
The guest list is top-tier: Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Miller, and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross will also attend. With Homeland Security, Defense, the FBI, and Justice all represented, this is clearly being treated as a national security issue.
Why now? The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has just released its 2025 annual report: it received more than 1 million internet crime complaints over the year, up 17% from the previous year. There were 181,565 crypto-related complaints, with losses totaling $11.4 billion, up 22%. Crypto investment scams accounted for $7.2 billion of that, with more than 61,000 complaints. Crypto losses among people aged 60 and over totaled $4.3 billion. Last year, the FBI’s “Operation Level Up” notified 3,780 potential victims and helped them avoid an estimated $226 million in further losses.
I think this crackdown is targeting not crypto itself, but telecom fraud compounds running “pig-butchering” scams. Crypto is simply the payment channel victims use; once the money is moved through fake trading platforms and digital wallets, recovering it becomes difficult. This doesn’t conflict with the Trump administration’s pro-business approach to crypto: one is about going after fraud, the other about promoting licensed markets.
But there’s also a real contradiction: in the same Reuters report, a Reuters investigation says the Trump family’s crypto businesses have brought the family at least $2.3 billion in wealth, while investors who followed suit lost $2.3 billion. As the administration cracks down on overseas scams, the media is also calling attention to conflicts of interest involving the family’s own crypto businesses. The White House response was that “everything is being done in the best interests of the American people.” Which side do you believe?
I think the impact on the industry is a double-edged sword. In the short term, the headlines are somewhat bearish: as enforcement ramps up, trading channels in gray areas will have to tighten up. In the long run, cleaning up scams is a good thing. After all, the GENIUS Act has just become law, and the OCC issued its first-ever final stablecoin rule last week. Both legislation and enforcement are moving toward bringing the industry into compliance.
Do you think this crackdown on scams is for real, or just for show?
#TrumpExpectedToOutlineCrackdownOnOverseasCryptoScams
#反诈 #FBI
$BTC
The above does not constitute investment advice. DYOR; trading involves risk.