The crypto industry is entering a phase where platforms should effectively integrate compliance, fraud resilience, and product design into a coherent operating model
LONDON, March 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sumsub, a leading full-cycle verification platform that enables scalable compliance, today released its fourth annual State of the Crypto Industry report*. The new research reveals how crypto companies are balancing fraud prevention, regulatory pressure, and user experience as they scale in 2026. This report draws on Sumsub’s internal data from 2024ā2025 and insights from 300 crypto companies surveyed outside Sumsub’s customer base.
Some of the key global highlights include:
- CryptoĀ firms are moving away from ‘growth at all costs’, withĀ 74%Ā now prioritizingĀ verification accuracyĀ over user onboarding speed (39%).
- DespiteĀ fraudĀ rates remaining flat atĀ 2.2%Ā from 2024 to 2025,Ā cryptoĀ firms operate in a structurallyĀ riskier environmentĀ where targeted, automated andĀ AI-driven attacksĀ are the new normal.
- Over halfĀ (55%)Ā of surveyed companies confirmed theyĀ experiencedĀ fraudĀ at least once in 2025, with 15% unsure if it happened or notāemphasizingĀ the lagĀ between detection capabilities and growingĀ fraudĀ sophistication.
User Experience Evolution in Crypto
According to surveyed crypto providers outside Sumsub’s customer base, three of the main verification hurdles in 2025 were false positives/false negatives (affecting 60%), slow verification times and poor UX (58% each). While verification accuracy is the top priority for almost three quarters of crypto companies, balancing onboarding speed and user experience alongside this remains critical.
That said, Sumsub internal data analysis reveals that the overall industry’s pivot toward accuracy, better internal processes, and more advanced technology is driving tangible improvements. Even as platforms faced stricter regulatory requirements and increasingly sophisticated fraud attempts, user pass rates continued to improve gradually, reaching 94% of all verification attempts on average, up one point from 2024āwhich translated into millions more successful legitimate users onboarded globally.
Another notable trend is UX merging with compliance, increasing popularity in Non-Doc and Reusable Identity solutions among future-oriented crypto platforms: the former refers to document-free user onboarding, and the latter allows to verify clients across multiple platforms without repetitive document uploads. In 2026, high pass rates are expected to be maintained alongside compliance requirements in increasingly complex cross-border onboarding scenarios.
“Crypto has entered a phase where operational discipline matters more than momentum.” said Andrew Sever, Co-Founder and CEO at Sumsub. “In 2025, the conversation shifted from ‘How fast can we grow?’ to ‘How well can we scale under scrutiny?’. Regulatory execution, fraud resilience, and onboarding efficiency are no longer separate challengesāthey’re interconnected systems problems. In 2026, sustainable growth will belong to those who build reliability into the core of their product and infrastructure from day one.”
Crypto Fraud Trends
While global fraud rates remained largely stable from 2024 to 2025, the dynamics varied across regions: with a significant 65% rise in APAC (reaching 3.3% of all verification attempts) and a moderate 8% increase in Europe (still remaining the lowest fraud rate globally, 1.4%), some regions showed drops in fraud rates: -38% across North America (down to 1.6%), -7% in LATAM (same as the minimum in Europe, 1.4%) and -28% in Africa (reaching 2.6%).
Fraud exposure in 2025 was widespread across crypto platforms: 55% of respondents experienced fraud in 2025ā25% at least once and 30% multiple times. Instead of relying on a single technique, modern fraud operations increasingly combine social engineering, synthetic identities, and mule networks to bypass controls and exploit weaknesses in identity verification and transaction monitoring, turning fraud into a targeted and persistent threat rather than a series of isolated incidents. Over half (57%) of surveyed crypto providers prioritise AI-powered fraud detection and 51% invest in advanced fraud analytics and monitoring.
Global Regulatory Updates
Adding to the complex fraud challenge, the 2025-2026 period marks a global regulatory inflection point for crypto, with regulators moving decisively from highālevel policy frameworks to operational enforcementāencompassing Travel Rule obligations, CARF taxāreporting regimes, stablecoin oversight, VASP licensing, and more.
Recent enforcement actions highlight this shift. For example, in March 2026 South Korean regulators imposed a $24.6 million fine on a major crypto exchange and ordered a six-month partial suspension of certain operations due to anti-money laundering and customer verification failures, signaling a more assertive approach to compliance oversight across leading digital asset markets.
Crypto Travel Rule compliance is expected to become a baseline market requirement instead of a competitive differentiator, with the majority (51%) of surveyed platforms either fully ready (23%) or actively implementing (28%) FATF Recommendation 16, and the remaining 43% reporting uncertainty over their integration status.
Crypto has entered a regulated maturity era: growth in 2026 is defined by regulatory scrutiny, sophisticated fraud pressure, and competition to deliver compliant, low-friction onboarding at scale.
“Regulated maturity means building better systems, not just adding more rules. The platforms that win will be those that embed verification into their product DNA and wrap automation in strong controls, transparency, and accountability,” explains Ilya Brovin, Chief Growth Officer at Sumsub. “In the era of AI agents, the central dilemma is how AI-powered verification vendors continuously outmaneuver AI-driven fraud without eroding user experience or auditability. Those who solve this dynamic won’t just meet regulatory expectations ā they’ll define the next standard of trust in crypto.”
To get the full State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report, please check https://sumsub.com/crypto-industry-report-2026/.
*Note on Sumsub’s research methodology
The study combines three main data pillars: 1) internal identity verification and user activity data from 2023 to 2025, covering pass rates, verification time, and fraud attempts across various regions, based on over 23,000 fraud attempts analyzed daily; 2) results of Sumsub’s Crypto Industry Research Survey 2025, which features responses from 300+ companies across the crypto sector outside Sumsub’s customer base, including centralized exchanges, wallets, payment providers, on/offāramps, and token issuers; 3) external publicly available regulatory and policy data capturing 2025-2026 changes in cryptoāasset rules, Travel Rule implementation, and tax reporting obligations across highāpriority regions.
About Sumsub
Sumsub is the leading verification provider for the crypto industry, working with 8 out of 10 top global crypto exchanges. With Sumsub’s customizable KYC, KYB, Travel Rule, Reusable, and Web3 identity, Crypto Transaction Monitoring, and Fraud Prevention solutions, you can orchestrate your verification process, welcome more customers worldwide, maximize pass rates, meet compliance requirements, reduce costs, and protect your business. Sumsub’s Reusable Identity product suite (including Reusable KYC, Sumsub ID, and Web3 Attestations) provides fast and secure cross-platform access for crypto users, eliminating redundant KYC steps.
With over 4,000 clients across crypto, fintech, gaming, mobility, and edtech industries, Sumsub supports the largest Travel Rule directory of 1800+ virtual asset service providers (VASPs). Having integrated GTR (owned by Binance), CODE, and Sygna, Sumsub combines a fully interoperable Travel Rule orchestration layer with the full set of SaaS features to automate Travel Rule message processing, data transfers, reporting, and transaction screening to improve compliance, security, and transparency.
SOURCE Sumsub