ACAMS and Chainalysis Team Up on Crypto Crime Training After $17B in Scam Losses

Published October 9, 2026, 00:40 UTC. Announcement via Business Wire; reporting via crypto.news and Coin Edition.

ACAMS, the global association for anti-money-laundering professionals, has redesigned its Certified Cryptoasset AFC Specialist certification with content from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, after Chainalysis estimated that crypto scams and fraud stole $17 billion in 2025, the organizations said on October 8.

The first partner-built certification

The redesigned Certified Cryptoasset AFC Specialist, known as CCAS, will be the first major ACAMS certification to incorporate material from a global partner, according to ACAMS. The announcement said the program trains professionals to investigate blockchain transactions, monitor on-chain activity and assess crypto-related financial crime risks.

ACAMS has opened pre-sales for the program, crypto.news reported, ahead of a November 19 launch. The curriculum folds in recent regulatory developments, emerging criminal methods and industry trends, with participants working through blockchain case studies and practical exercises. The announcement also lists practice-focused online learning and an expanded 300-question practice exam for certification candidates.

The $17 billion motivation

Beyond scam losses, the announcement cites Chainalysis estimates that identified illicit cryptocurrency addresses received at least $154 billion during 2025, with $17 billion attributed to scams and fraud, crypto.news reported. Chainalysis said on-chain scams generated at least $14 billion in 2025 and expects the figure to rise toward $17 billion as investigators attribute more illicit wallets, AMBCrypto reported in June.

The threats are getting sharper. Chainalysis reported impersonation scams grew 1,400% year over year, CoinDesk reported in January, and its researchers found AI-enabled scams were 4.5 times more profitable than traditional ones. Chainalysis co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin said criminals are using artificial intelligence to automate scams, create synthetic identities and move money between blockchains within seconds, crypto.news reported.

ACAMS pointed to sophisticated scams, international money laundering networks and state-sponsored sanctions evasion as the forces its graduates will face. ACAMS CEO Neil Sternthal said the organizations were training practitioners to confront today's blockchain threats and anticipate what is coming next. Levin said the advantage blockchain transparency provides only matters if practitioners have the data, skills and tools to use it.

A 79% knowledge gap

Demand for the training is visible in ACAMS's own surveys. At The Assembly Las Vegas 2026, 79% of surveyed anti-financial-crime professionals selected crypto and digital assets as their biggest training or knowledge gap, according to ACAMS, Coin Edition reported.

The updated curriculum adds three new courses to a redesigned Cryptoassets and Blockchain course: financial crime risks and regulatory frameworks, crypto compliance programs, and investigative case studies. The compliance angle is getting sharper under U.S. law, with the Treasury proposing anti-money laundering and sanctions requirements for permitted payment stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, treating issuers as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act, crypto.news reported.

The FBI is moving in the same direction. The bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center received 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints during 2025, with reported losses exceeding $11 billion, including more than $7.2 billion in crypto investment fraud, crypto.news reported. Those are the practitioners, and the caseloads, the new certification is built for.

This article is news reporting and is not investment advice.

Sources

• ACAMS announcement, via Business Wire (Oct. 8, 2026), primary source
• crypto.news, ACAMS and Chainalysis expand crypto crime training as scam losses hit $17B (Oct. 9, 2026), secondary source
• Coin Edition, ACAMS, Chainalysis Expand Crypto Crime Training as Losses Hit $17B (Oct. 9, 2026), secondary source
• CoinDesk, Chainalysis Report Reveals Impersonation and AI Crypto Scams Surpass Cyberattacks (Jan. 14, 2026), secondary source