President Donald Trump cited more than $20 billion in Americans’ cybercrime losses in 2025 at the White House cybercrime roundtable on October 21, 2026—but never used the word “crypto.” He instead described frozen funds as “cybercurrency,” while senior officials also avoided the terms “cryptocurrency” and “digital assets.”
Key takeaways
- Trump said federal officials froze $1 billion linked to foreign scammers.
- The FBI put Americans’ digital asset scam losses at $11 billion in 2025.
- Trump’s family crypto businesses face scrutiny over earnings, investor losses and transactions.
The White House cybercrime roundtable’s language choices
Trump and Attorney General Todd Blanche discussed scams without explicitly saying “cryptocurrency” or “digital assets.” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin used the phrase “digital extortion.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also attended.
Trump identified impersonation, ransomware and scam centers among the methods behind Americans’ losses. According to him, federal authorities seized $1 billion in “cybercurrency tied to foreign scammers” and stopped an additional $1.6 billion in potential losses throughout 2025, a result of a March executive order.
The White House cybercrime roundtable took place amid questions from lawmakers and voters about the digital asset interests of Trump and administration members. Critics have accused them of profiting from those assets through their public positions.
The FBI’s digital asset loss figures for 2025
The FBI reported $11 billion in Americans’ losses from scams involving digital assets in 2025. Its figure includes fraud conducted through crypto ATMs.
That tally specifically concerns digital asset scams; Trump’s figure of more than $20 billion covered cybercrime more broadly, including the impersonation schemes and ransomware attacks he described.
Trump family ventures face scrutiny over profits and access
According to Trump, his crypto ventures, along with those of his family, generated $1.4 billion in 2025 in earnings. In a separate report, Public Citizen claimed that schemes linked to Trump caused investors roughly $4.7 billion in losses.
Scrutiny has fallen on World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm run by the Trump family, regarding how its USD1 stablecoin was used to finalize a $2 billion investment in Binance. The entity behind that investment had connections to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.
Meanwhile, the Official Trump memecoin project has scheduled yet another dinner for tokenholders on November 22. Previous gatherings hosted by the project’s organizers led lawmakers and advocacy groups to accuse Trump of trading access to the presidency through “pay-to-play” practices.
Italian arrests involved alleged crypto money laundering
Italian authorities arrested 30 people over allegations that cryptocurrency was used to launder millions of dollars through a bank allegedly connected to the mafia. Reports of those arrests preceded the White House event.
Investigators were examining a criminal network believed to be funneling money from corporate fraud, crypto scams and drug trafficking into digital wallets.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.