Sumsub CEO warns AI fraud outpaces compliance

Crypto compliance demand is surging as AI fraud evolves faster than firms can respond, Sumsub CEO Andrew Sever says.

Crypto compliance firms are reporting a sharp rise in demand as AI fraud attacks become faster, more sophisticated, and harder to stop. Sumsub co-founder and CEO Andrew Sever told Consensus Miami that fraud is evolving faster than the industry can respond.

“Before, the main things were verification speed and conversion rate,” Sever said. “Today, the majority of companies prioritize verification accuracy.” High-quality AI fraud attacks on crypto surged 180% year over year, with sophisticated attacks now using deepfakes, synthetic identities, and automated phishing networks that can bypass standard verification systems.

What is driving the compliance surge

Sever warned that bad actors now use large language models to launch thousands of personalised phishing attempts per minute, mimicking legitimate exchanges without detectable errors. “Imagine a bad actor trying to penetrate the system using a deepfake. If it fails, they try again in two minutes,” he said.

Only 23% of crypto companies are currently ready to comply with incoming identity and fraud regulations, according to Sumsub’s State of the Crypto Industry 2026 report. Sever noted that 72% of firms told Sumsub they would change their internal compliance processes as a result of the pressure.

Illicit crypto reached $154 billion in 2025 according to Chainalysis, up 162% from the prior year, with scammers and sanctioned entities both driving volume higher. The scale of the problem is pushing compliance teams toward automated systems.

How the industry is responding

Chainalysis launched blockchain intelligence agents in March designed to absorb the growing alert load facing compliance teams, triaging, gathering context, and surfacing conclusions faster than human analysts working alone. Emmanuel Marot, vice president of products at Chainalysis, said the company wants to “automate the tasks of our customers as much as possible.”

A DOJ rollback of crypto enforcement in early 2026, flagged by senators citing the same Chainalysis data, has added further pressure on private-sector compliance teams to fill the gap left by reduced federal oversight.