Pig butchering, a form of romance fraud in which victims are groomed into sending money to fake crypto investment schemes, has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic’s 2025 Typologies Report.

The study points to increasingly organized methods of laundering stolen funds using practices that resemble professional financial operations.

Elliptic’s investigators found that scammers often pool victims' deposits into self-hosted wallets used only to consolidate and move funds. From there, the money flows through chains of transactions designed to obscure its origin, sometimes passing through cross-chain bridges or payment processing services that offer a veneer of legitimacy.

A common tactic involves using mule accounts at regulated crypto pl

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