UNODC says Southeast Asia crime networks stole $114 billion via crypto in 2025

Southeast Asia based scam networks stole between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion from victims in the Asia Pacific in 2025. The United Nations reported the figures this week.

A good chunk of that money flowed through crypto. That’s from a threat assessment released Tuesday by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The agency says the industry is outpacing police efforts to keep up with it.

Scam syndicates merge into a $114 billion franchise

UNODC says the region’s syndicates used to have single territories and single specialties. Now they have woven together into one transnational network. Groups sell services to each other on shared infrastructures. Money laundering, fraud, human trafficking, and data harvesting are all separate departments plugged into the same system.

Delphine Schantz, the UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, compared the setup to “corporate franchising” in a statement that accompanied the report.

The losses “outstrip the GDP of several countries in the region,” the report said. It describes a criminal economy that is less of a patchwork of gangs and more of an integrated industry.

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