Inside the FBI’s little-known annual crypto crime gathering

The FBI’s Virtual Asset Technical Exchange is an invitation-only symposium run for roughly nine years that convenes federal and international law enforcement, frontline investigators and private-sector crypto-security specialists to exchange operational intelligence on crimes involving digital assets. This September’s edition drew a few hundred participants over three days and combined keynotes, panels, fireside chats and demo rooms where companies showcased investigative tools. Attendees included representatives from blockchain forensics firms and compliance vendors; Chainalysis and TRM Labs were reported to have attended, and Predicate’s CEO Nikhil Raghuveera gave a presentation on stablecoin compliance. Officials from the Security Alliance and the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were also present. The FBI and Chainalysis declined comment, TRM confirmed attendance, and Predicate acknowledged the CEO’s presentation. Program sessions focused on the illicit uses of virtual assets across a broad array of criminal activity: cartel funding, terrorist financing, ransomware and other cyber-enabled fraud, scams, child sexual exploitation material, human trafficking, violent "wrench" attacks, and state-linked operations such as North Korean hacks. Speakers reviewed active threats, effective tracing techniques and recent incidents — including a detailed briefing on the April Drift exploit, in which attackers manipulated a token to help steal more than $270 million from a Solana-based decentralized exchange. Organizers have kept the symposium deliberately low-key compared with commercial crypto conferences; sources described it as a law enforcement forum aimed at operational outcomes like arrests and asset seizures rather than industry promotion. The event has broadened over time from a government-heavy gathering to include more private-sector participants, reflecting an increased dependence by investigators on crypto firms and blockchain analysts to identify attackers and trace stolen funds. The FBI established its Virtual Assets Unit in February 2022 to centralize cryptocurrency investigative work across criminal and cyber divisions, amid rising use of digital assets in crimes and national-security operations. Chainalysis data cited at the event noted a sharp rise in crypto flows tied to sanctioned states in 2025, with sanctioned entities receiving 694% more crypto that year.