Practice Area · Digital Asset Fraud

Cryptocurrency Fraud Attorney

Cryptocurrency fraud has cost investors billions of dollars through fake exchanges, Ponzi schemes, rug pulls, and broker misconduct involving digital asset recommendations. If you lost money in a crypto-related investment, your path to recovery depends on who sold it to you and how.

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The Recovery Question

Crypto Losses Are Not Always Unrecoverable. The Key Is Whether a Regulated Professional Was Involved.

The most common question investors ask about cryptocurrency losses is whether they can get their money back. The honest answer is: it depends. When a scammer operating an anonymous platform defrauds an investor, recovery is extraordinarily difficult. When a licensed broker, registered investment adviser, or regulated financial professional recommends or facilitates a digital asset investment that results in loss, the legal landscape is very different.

Regulated financial professionals who recommend cryptocurrency investments are subject to the same suitability, disclosure, and anti-fraud obligations that apply to any other securities recommendation. A broker who recommends Bitcoin ETFs, digital asset funds, or cryptocurrency-linked products to a client without adequate disclosure of the risks, or an investment adviser who manages a crypto-heavy portfolio without proper authorization or in a manner inconsistent with the client's investment objectives, has violated their professional obligations regardless of whether cryptocurrency itself is regulated.

Critical distinction: If a licensed broker or investment adviser was involved in the digital asset investment that caused your loss, including through a recommendation, referral, account management, or facilitation of the transaction, you may have a recoverable claim in FINRA arbitration or court even if the underlying asset is not itself a registered security.

Types of Crypto Fraud

The Most Common Forms of Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Fraud

Broker-Recommended Crypto Products

A licensed broker recommends cryptocurrency ETFs, digital asset funds, or crypto-linked structured products without adequately disclosing the volatility, regulatory uncertainty, or concentration risk involved in digital asset investments.

Unregistered Crypto Securities

A promoter sells tokens, digital assets, or cryptocurrency interests that constitute securities under the Howey test without registering the offering or qualifying for an exemption, giving investors rescission rights under federal and state securities law.

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Pig Butchering Schemes

A fraudster develops a romantic or personal relationship with the victim online, gains their trust over weeks or months, introduces a supposedly profitable cryptocurrency trading platform, convinces the victim to invest increasing amounts, then disappears with all funds when the victim attempts to withdraw.

Fake Exchange Fraud

A fraudulent platform mimics a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, allows investors to deposit funds and watch fabricated profits accumulate, then imposes increasingly burdensome withdrawal conditions, demands additional "tax" or "fee" payments, and ultimately prevents any withdrawal of funds.

NFT and Token Rug Pulls

Promoters create artificial hype around a new cryptocurrency token or NFT project, attract investor capital, then abandon the project and sell their holdings, causing the asset's value to collapse to zero while leaving investors with worthless digital assets.

Crypto Ponzi Schemes

A promoter promises guaranteed cryptocurrency investment returns, pays early investors with later investors' capital, and ultimately collapses when new investment cannot sustain the payment obligations, leaving most investors with total losses.

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Legal Framework

How Securities Law Applies to Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Fraud

The Howey test and crypto securities: The Supreme Court's Howey test determines whether a digital asset is a security. Many cryptocurrencies and tokens, particularly those sold with an expectation of profit based on the efforts of others, qualify as securities subject to SEC registration and anti-fraud requirements. The SEC has brought enforcement actions against dozens of cryptocurrency issuers on this basis.
FINRA broker obligations: FINRA-registered brokers who recommend cryptocurrency exchange-traded products, digital asset funds, or other crypto-linked instruments available through their brokerage platform are subject to Reg BI and FINRA suitability rules. Unsuitable recommendations or inadequate risk disclosure give rise to FINRA arbitration claims.
Rule 10b-5 and crypto fraud: Material misrepresentations or omissions in connection with the purchase or sale of a digital asset that qualifies as a security violate Rule 10b-5 regardless of whether the asset is registered. The SEC has successfully applied Rule 10b-5 in multiple cryptocurrency enforcement actions.
Wire fraud and mail fraud: In cases involving fake exchanges, pig butchering schemes, and other outright theft, federal wire fraud and mail fraud statutes may apply independent of securities law, creating a basis for referral to federal law enforcement and, in some cases, civil RICO claims.
Florida Chapter 517: To the extent that a digital asset sold to a Florida investor constitutes a security under Florida law, Chapter 517's registration requirements and anti-fraud provisions apply, potentially giving Florida investors rescission rights and attorneys' fees recovery independent of federal law.

Enforcement Perspective

Applying Decades of Offering Fraud Experience to the Digital Asset Context

Cryptocurrency fraud shares the structural DNA of the securities fraud schemes Jorge L. Riera prosecuted during his decade at the SEC's Division of Enforcement in Miami: false promises of returns, unregistered offerings, misappropriation of investor funds, and the exploitation of trust that characterizes every financial fraud. The assets are different. The fraud patterns are not.

Co-Author: SEC Staff Offering Fraud Guidance

Jorge co-authored the agency's "Offering Fraud" guidance document, for which he received the SEC's agency-wide Excellence in Information Technology Award. That document, which addresses the patterns of fraud in unregistered offerings, provides the analytical framework that applies directly to the token offering fraud, fake exchange fraud, and crypto Ponzi schemes that investors bring to the firm today.

SEC Whistleblower Program for Crypto Fraud

The SEC Whistleblower Program explicitly covers digital asset fraud. Individuals who provide original information about cryptocurrency fraud schemes that results in SEC enforcement action with sanctions over $1 million may qualify for an award of 10 to 30 percent of those sanctions. Jorge's experience as a former SEC enforcement attorney makes him particularly well-positioned to evaluate and present crypto-related whistleblower submissions to the SEC.

All digital asset fraud claims involving regulated financial professionals are handled on a contingency fee basis. No legal fee unless we recover.

Case costs and expenses are payable from any recovery as provided in the written engagement agreement.

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Common Questions

Cryptocurrency Fraud: Frequently Asked Questions

Recovery from anonymous crypto scammers is extremely difficult because the perpetrators are typically overseas and operating pseudonymously. However, if you transferred funds through a U.S.-based bank or financial institution, there may be options for tracing and potentially recovering funds through civil litigation or law enforcement action. Additionally, if a licensed financial professional referred you to the fake platform or facilitated your transfer of funds, that professional may be independently liable. The circumstances of how you found the platform and how you transferred your money are critical to evaluating recovery options.

A decline in a Bitcoin ETF's value alone does not create a claim. However, if your broker recommended the Bitcoin ETF without adequately disclosing the extreme volatility of the underlying asset, without conducting a proper suitability analysis of whether your risk tolerance and investment objectives were consistent with significant cryptocurrency exposure, or if the recommendation created an unsuitable concentration in a highly speculative asset class, those failures may give rise to a Reg BI or suitability claim in FINRA arbitration.

This pattern is consistent with a pig butchering or fake exchange fraud scheme. You should immediately stop sending any additional funds, including any "fees," "taxes," or "deposits" the platform demands to release your funds. These demands are part of the fraud and sending more money will not result in a withdrawal. Document everything: screenshots of the platform, all communications with the person who introduced you, all transaction records, and all bank or wire transfer records. Contact an attorney and, depending on the amounts involved, consider reporting to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the FTC. Do not use "recovery services" that contact you after you have been victimized, as these are typically additional scams.

Some cryptocurrencies and digital assets are regulated by the SEC as securities; others are not. The analysis turns on whether the asset meets the Howey test: an investment of money in a common enterprise with an expectation of profits derived from the efforts of others. The SEC has taken the position that many tokens and digital assets are securities, and has brought enforcement actions accordingly. Bitcoin and Ethereum have generally been treated differently, with commodity regulators asserting jurisdiction over those assets. The regulatory landscape for digital assets continues to evolve rapidly in 2026, with new legislation and court decisions shaping the framework on an ongoing basis.

No Fee Unless We Win

The Technology Is New. The Fraud Patterns Are Not. The Recovery Rights May Surprise You.

Cryptocurrency losses involving licensed brokers, registered advisers, or unregistered securities may be fully recoverable. Contact the firm for a free, confidential evaluation of your digital asset losses and whether a legal claim is available.

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Jorge L. Riera, Esq., CPA, CGMA, MAcc · Former SEC Senior Enforcement Counsel · FINRA NAMC Public Member & Expungement Subcommittee Chair · AV Preeminent (Martindale-Hubbell) · Avvo 10.0 · PLI Securities Arbitration Faculty 2026 · Contingency Fee Representation