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The FBI has brought together investigators, partner international law enforcement, and crypto experts for its Virtual Asset Technical Exchange in San Antonio, amid multibillion-dollar losses resulting from cryptocurrency-related crime complaints made in the United States.
CoinDesk reported that the invitation-only summit was the forum’s ninth annual event, previously called the Virtual Currency Symposium. Separately, an FBI Virtual Asset Technical Exchange was scheduled for September 2-3 in San Antonio, according to an event listing by Recoveris. The FBI also did not publish an agenda, list of attendees, or a report.
Reports of hundreds of attendees indicated there were only about fifty private sector vendors and partners in attendance, such as FBI officials, law-enforcement officers from other countries, compliance officers for exchanges, and blockchain-forensics companies. TRM Labs were confirmed attendees, and Predicate said CEO Nikhil Raghuveera spoke about stablecoin compliance and the GENIUS Act.
There was discussion about tracing illicit flows, fraud, terrorism financing, cartels, human sex trafficking, and attacks on crypto holders. There were also presentations, panels, and technical demonstrations with a more law enforcement focus than the typical crypto conference.
The meeting comes on the heels of the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, showing a 21% increase in crypto-related complaints from 2024, with 181,565 complaints and $11.366 billion in associated losses, a 22% increase from the previous year.
Cryptocurrency investment fraud was worth more than $7.2 billion, according to the IC3’s database of complaints, but not all crimes were reported there.
The bureau has had a Virtual Assets Unit since 2022, providing centralized crypto expertise, blockchain analysis, seizure support, training and assistance. It was created on Feb. 7, 2022, in response to the increasing use of virtual assets for ransomware, fraud, child exploitation and financing of terrorism and nation-state investigations.
North Korea’s activity was reportedly a major focus of the San Antonio forum, including a presentation on the April hack of Drift Protocol, which blockchain forensics firms said had North Korean actor involvement.
TRM Labs attributed an estimated $643 million — or around 66% — of cryptocurrency theft in the first half of 2026 to alleged North Korea-linked operations.
Outside of protocol-level vulnerabilities, compromised credentials, privileged access, and social engineering have been identified as other vectors for possible attack besides smart-contract attacks.
Such attacks take advantage of the time before funds are confirmed on the blockchain, highlighting the need for co-operation by investigators, exchanges and analytics firms.
Cryptocurrency-crime victims still file complaints with IC3 and the FBI’s local offices. The FBI released no public report after the September exchange, and the San Antonio conference produced few details, but it illustrates how the bureau coordinates with state, local, and private-sector experts on crimes empowered by cryptocurrency.
Source: bitcoinfoundation.org