The Central Bank of Russia reported that it identified more than 7,000 financial pyramids and other fraud schemes in the financial market in 2025, with online channels dominating the activity. More than 5,700 pyramid schemes and pseudo-brokers operated online, often by promoting the same scheme under different names. Cryptoassets were a central feature, with fraudsters offering crypto-based investments and requiring payments in cryptocurrencies, and the regulator identified more than 4,600 cryptocurrency wallets used by victims to transfer funds. The update points to increasingly scalable and digitally driven schemes. Some fraud operations were duplicated more than 300 times, while organisers also used artificial intelligence to attract a younger audience and draw participants into illegal projects, exposing them not only to financial losses but also to the risk of becoming accomplices in crime. So-called black lenders accounted for 1,100 projects and combined online activity with new offline offices under a common brand, including pseudo-pawnshops and consignment shops that illegally issued loans presented as being secured by pawned items. At the Central Bank of Russia’s initiative, 21,500 online resources linked to financial pyramids and illegal entities were blocked in 2025. The regulator also referred all identified illegal projects to law enforcement agencies, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation and other organizations, leading to more than 400 civil lawsuits and over 650 other response measures during the year.

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