Florida Crypto Scam Recovery Seizes $3.2M from NFT Romance Frauds

Florida's crypto scam recovery operation seized $3.2 million in assets on April 14, 2026, per the Florida Attorney General's press release. Regulators targeted romance frauds pivoting to fake NFT mints. Victims now reclaim funds via this multi-agency bust.

Scammers groomed targets on Tinder and Bumble. They pitched "exclusive" NFT drops on Discord, directing ETH to scammer wallets.

Romance Scams Target Web3 NFT Markets

Fraudsters posed as NFT fans on X and Discord. They mimicked Bored Ape Yacht Club PFP art with fakes.

Victims sent over 120 ETH total to ghost projects, per Chainalysis on-chain traces. Funds flowed through Tornado Cash before seizure.

Florida Attorney General led with FBI and IRS. Teams used Etherscan and Chainalysis to map wallets from Ethereum block 20,145,678. Details at Florida Attorney General's office.

Layer 2 bridges like Arbitrum slowed but failed to block recovery.

NFT Risks Rise Across Chains

CryptoPunks held 45 ETH floor on OpenSea Ethereum mainnet (April 14, 2026, via Reservoir.tools). Solana PFPs fell 15% on scam fears.

Scammers cloned Blur for phishing. They stole seeds via deepfakes. Solana saw 22 rug pulls last week, per Dune Analytics.

Bitcoin Ordinals scams pushed 0.02 BTC premiums. Attacks hit Ethereum L1, Solana, Base.

OpenSea logged 12,500 ETH 24h volume on Ethereum (down 8% WoW, via Reservoir.tools). Blur took 65% share with 8,200 ETH, per Reservoir.tools.

Bear Market Fuels Fraud Surge

Fear & Greed Index hit 21 (extreme fear) on April 14, 2026, per Alternative.me. Bitcoin traded at $74,237 (+1.1%); Ethereum at $2,324.70 (+2.3%), via CoinGecko.

NFT volumes dropped 12% on Blur. Low sentiment spurs risky mints.

Nansen.ai flagged 20% wash trading in some floors.

Key Defenses Shield NFT Holders

Verify contracts on Etherscan pre-mint. Use Ledger for 1+ ETH holdings.

Set multisig for DAOs. Report DMs fast.

Check taint with Chainalysis Reactor. See SEC crypto scam guidance for flags.

Projects enforce 10% on-chain royalties, audited by Certik. Dune blacklists aid communities.

Regulations Boost Web3 Trust

Florida's recovery sets a fraud-chase model. FTC reclaimed $1.5M last quarter; CFTC probes derivatives.

EU MiCA requires disclosures Q3 2026. Texas copies wallet seizures.

DAOs fund 2% royalties to bounties. Elliptic AI forensics slash trace time 40%.

As Fear & Greed nears 30, NFT traders stress on-chain checks. More Florida crypto scam recoveries loom.