Elliptic Report Highlights Growth of Pig Butchering Crypto Scams

Key Points:

Pig butchering, a romance fraud scheme involving fake crypto investments, has become a multibillion-dollar industry according to Elliptic's 2025 Typologies Report.
Fraudsters now use organized methods resembling professional financial operations to launder stolen funds.
Victims' deposits are consolidated in self-hosted wallets and moved through transaction chains to obscure origins, sometimes using cross-chain bridges or payment services.
Mule accounts at regulated platforms often share suspicious markers like identical addresses and repeated IP logins.
Photos for compliance checks suggest operations are run from call centers in Southeast Asia, where these scams are prevalent.
Blockchain transparency offers regulators tools to detect suspicious activities despite scammers' evolving tactics.
The report notes an increase in sanctioned individuals using stablecoins for cross-border transactions.