Europol's 2025 Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment warns of the potential for fully autonomous AI to control criminal networks, facilitated by blockchain and AI, leading to an escalation in online fraud schemes and expansion of cryptocurrency use in traditional crime.
The report emphasizes the realistic narratives crafted with AI, highlighting the prominent role of cryptocurrency in various criminal activities, and the potential for AI to automate and scale criminal operations, making cyberattacks more targeted and globally expansive.
TRM Labs' report underscores the increasing use of AI by criminals in automating phishing campaigns, creating deepfakes, and supporting cybercrime through dynamic malware adaptation, ultimately adding millions to the cost of organized crime and predicting further adoption of AI by criminals in the future.
Europol has issued a warning that blockchain and AI will accelerate serious and organized crime in the future. A report from the EU law enforcement agency suggests that fully autonomous AI could lead to entirely AI-controlled criminal networks. The report predicts that the combination of AI and crypto will expand online fraud schemes. It also highlights the increasing role of cryptocurrencies in traditional crime areas such as drug trafficking and cyberattacks. The report emphasizes how AI's automation capabilities are making criminal operations more efficient and expansive. It further discusses how criminals are already using AI for automating attacks, creating deepfakes, and supporting cybercrime through additional information. The report's findings align with private research indicating that bad actors are increasingly leveraging AI for hacks and fraud.
Europol has warned that blockchain and AI will “accelerate serious and organised crime” in the coming years, with a new report from the EU law enforcement agency even predicting that fully autonomous AI “could pave the way for entirely AI-controlled criminal networks.” In its 2025 Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment , Europol suggested that the combination of AI and crypto will serve to expand online fraud schemes, which already represent “the most rapidly expanding sector” in organised crime.
“Narratives are extremely realistic, crafted with the help of AI, and incorporating trending societal topics,” the report’s authors wrote. “Cryptocurrency features prominently as a payment method.”
CRYPTO AND CRIME
While not data-focused, the assessment offers a broad and far-reaching summary of the expanding role cryptocurrencies are now playing in serious crime in Europe. The report concluded that cryptocurrency has “moved beyond the scope of cybercrime” and is found increasingly in more “traditional” areas such as “drug trafficking or migrant smuggling.” Other varieties of crime which crypto facilitates include cyberattacks, online fraud, sanctions evasion, and also the trafficking of human beings.
Written by senior researchers in the fields of crime and security, the starkest warning comes with respect to how the emergence of AI may effectively help automate such criminal activity on an industrial scale. The report’s authors state that AI’s automation capabilities are already making criminal operations more efficient and expansive. “From automating phishing campaigns to executing large-scale cyber-attacks, AI enables criminals to achieve more – reach more victims, be more targeted in their approach, and expand their global reach – with fewer resources,” the report read.
Among the cybercriminal uses of AI, the assessment lists “attack automation, social engineering, and bypassing security measures,” which again are making cyberattacks more scalable. Europol’s evaluation of finds support in private research, with blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs releasing a report in January of this year which revealed that bad actors “are increasingly leveraging AI to carry out hacks and conduct fraud.”
HOW CRIMINALS ARE USING AI
Isabella Chase, the Head of Policy for EMEA at TRM Labs, told Decrypt that there are three primary ways in which criminals are already using AI. The first relates to the automation of attacks, with AI-based tools enabling “the automation of phishing campaigns, creating highly convincing messages at scale,” according to Chase. Related to this is how criminals are using AI to create deepfakes and other synthetic media. “Criminals use AI to build convincing deepfakes or to embellish existing stolen identities to dupe victims,” she said. “This is increasingly important for business compromise, which is the most profitable form of online fraud.” Less visibly, AI is also being used to support cybercrime and other exploits by providing criminals with additional information, providing data and details they may have otherwise missed.
As Chase explains, “AI algorithms optimize ransomware operations by identifying the most critical data or systems to encrypt for maximum leverage. AI also allows malware to adapt dynamically to evade real-time detection.” The use of AI is likely already adding millions on to the cost of organised crime, but TRM Labs estimates that more criminals