Trump will emphasize combating overseas cryptocurrency fraud at the White House event
U.S. President Trump will emphasize his administration's actions against overseas cryptocurrency fraud at a cybercrime prevention event at the White House on Wednesday. According to Reuters citing White House officials, these overseas criminal networks lure Americans into participating in fraudulent cryptocurrency investments. Trump and cabinet members plan to point out that the government has shut down multiple fraudulent cryptocurrency investment websites and is working to close down online impersonation scams. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, FBI Director Kash Patel, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Todd Blanche are expected to attend.
The event follows an executive order from March this year, where Trump instructed the Department of Justice to prioritize identifying and prosecuting cyber fraudsters, followed by a memorandum requiring the Department of Homeland Security to collaborate with private companies to monitor foreign criminal hacker organizations. FBI data shows that in 2025, over 1 million cyber fraud complaints were submitted by the American public, a 17% increase from 2024, with record losses. Cryptocurrency fraud accounted for more than half of the losses, with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center recording 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints, resulting in losses of $11.366 billion, with cryptocurrency investment fraud causing $7.2 billion in losses.
Most of the fraud activities trace back to organized crime groups in Southeast Asia, involving Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar, where criminals exploit trafficking victims as forced labor in scam operations. Americans aged 60 and above bear the heaviest losses, with cryptocurrency-related losses reaching $4.43 billion. Cryptocurrency ATM fraud caused losses of $389 million, a 58% increase from 2024; secondary scams targeting previous victims caused an additional $1.4 billion in losses. The FBI's "Operation Upgrade" notified 3,780 victims suffering from cryptocurrency investment fraud in 2025, estimated to recover $225.8 million.