This week, Total published its fourth year State of the Crypto Industry report. New research reveals how cryptocurrency companies Balancing fraud prevention, regulatory pressure and user experience as we scale in 2026. This report is based on Sumsub’s internal data for 2024-2025 and insights from 300 crypto companies surveyed outside Sumsub’s customer base.
Notable global crypto events
- Cryptocurrency firms are moving away from ‘growth at all costs’; 74% now prioritize verification accuracy over user engagement speed (39%);
- Although fraud rates remain steady at 2.2% from 2024 to 2025, crypto companies operate in a structurally riskier environment where targeted, automated and AI-driven attacks are the new normal; And
- More than half (55%) of companies surveyed confirmed they have encountered fraud at least once in 2025; 15% are not sure if this is happening; This highlights the lag between detection capabilities and increasing fraud sophistication.
User experience evolution in crypto
According to crypto providers surveyed outside of Sumsub’s customer base, three of the main verification hurdles in 2025 were false positives/false negatives (affecting 60%), slow verification times, and poor user experience (58% each). While verification accuracy is a top priority for nearly three-quarters of crypto companies, balancing onboarding speed and user experience is critical.
Sumsub internal data analysis reveals that overall, the industry’s drive towards accuracy, better internal processes and more advanced technology is leading to tangible improvements. Even as platforms faced stricter regulatory requirements and increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts, user migration rates continued to gradually improve, reaching an average of 94% of all verification attempts by 2024, up one point from 2024; This has meant that millions more successful legitimate users around the world have joined the system.
Another notable trend is the convergence of UX with compliance and the growing popularity of Documentless and Reusable Identity solutions among future-oriented crypto platforms: the former implies user onboarding without requiring documentation, and the latter allows verification of customers across multiple platforms without repeated document uploads. In 2026, high migration rates as well as compliance requirements are expected to be maintained in increasingly complex cross-border engagement scenarios.
“Crypto has entered a phase where operational discipline is more important than momentum” in question Andrew SeverCo-founder and CEO of Sumsub. “In 2025, the topic has changed from ‘How fast can we grow?’ to ‘How well can we scale under scrutiny?’ Regulatory enforcement, fraud resilience and engagement efficiency are no longer separate challenges but interconnected systems issues. “Sustainable growth in 2026 will belong to those who place reliability at the center of their products and infrastructure from day one.”
Crypto scam trends
While global fraud rates remained largely stable from 2024 to 2025, dynamics varied by region:
- 65% increase in APAC (3.3% of all verification attempts reached);
- 8% increase in Europe (still the lowest fraud rate worldwide (1.4%));
- -38% across North America (up to 1.6%);
- -7% in LATAM (same as the European minimum, 1.4%); And
- -28% in Africa (reached 2.6%).
Exposure to fraud in 2025 was common across crypto platforms: 55% of respondents experienced fraud in 2025; 25% at least once and 30% more than once. Rather than relying on a single technique, modern fraud operations increasingly combine social engineering, synthetic identities and mule networks, bypassing controls and exploiting weaknesses in authentication and transaction monitoring; It turns fraud into a targeted and persistent threat rather than a series of isolated incidents.
More than half (57%) of surveyed crypto providers prioritize AI-powered fraud detection. Approximately 51% are investing in advanced fraud analytics and monitoring.
Global regulatory updates
In addition to the complex fraud issue, the 2025-2026 period marks a global regulatory turning point for crypto; regulators are moving decisively from high-level policy frameworks to operational enforcement (covering Travel Rule obligations, CARF tax reporting regimes, stablecoin oversight, VASP licensing and more).
Recent enforcement actions underscore this shift. For example, in March 2026, South Korean regulators imposed a $24.6 million fine on a major crypto exchange and ordered a partial suspension of certain operations for six months due to anti-money laundering and customer verification errors; This signaled a more assertive approach to compliance monitoring in leading digital asset markets.
Crypto Travel Rule compliance is expected to become a core market requirement rather than a competitive differentiator; The majority of platforms surveyed (51%) are either fully ready (23%) or actively implementing FATF Recommendation 16 (28%), and the remaining 43% report uncertainty about their integration status.
Crypto has entered a period of regulated maturity: growth in 2026 is defined by regulatory scrutiny, sophisticated fraud pressure, and competition to achieve compliant, low-friction participation at scale.
“Regulatory maturity means building better systems, not just adding more rules. The platforms that will win will be those that embed verification into the product DNA and surround automation with strong controls, transparency, and accountability.” in question Ilya BrovinSumsub’s chief growth officer. “The central dilemma in the age of AI intermediaries is how AI-powered verification providers consistently defeat AI-driven fraud without disrupting user experience or auditability. Those who solve this dynamic will not only meet regulatory expectations, but also define the next standard of trust in crypto.”
