FBI’s low-profile crypto meeting brings investigators and industry together

The FBI has spent years building a quiet, invitation-only forum where investigators, government agencies and crypto specialists compare notes on digital-asset crime, CoinDesk reports. The latest gathering took place in September in San Antonio, Texas, bringing together hundreds of participants for discussions that ranged from terrorist financing to hacks and fraud.

Known as the Virtual Asset Technical Exchange, the event was previously called the Virtual Currency Symposium. Three former attendees told CoinDesk that it is designed to connect law enforcement officials with overseas investigators, blockchain-analysis firms, security researchers and companies whose tools are used to track digital money.

The meeting is now in its ninth year. It has attracted little public attention, appearing mainly through occasional social-media posts by participants rather than the large marketing campaigns associated with commercial cryptocurrency conferences.

A working forum rather than a trade show

The event’s format includes keynote addresses, panels, informal fireside discussions and networking. Private-sector participants can also demonstrate their products in dedicated rooms. About 50 vendors and other private-sector partners are allowed to attend, while the overall audience numbers several hundred, according to two people familiar with the gathering.

Participants at this year’s meeting reportedly included blockchain-forensics companies Chainalysis and TRM Labs. TRM confirmed that it attended, while the FBI and Chainalysis declined to comment. Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder and chief executive of compliance-infrastructure company Predicate, spoke about stablecoin compliance and the GENIUS legislation, according to the report. Predicate confirmed his appearance.

Representatives of the nonprofit Security Alliance, which works on cyber protection across the crypto sector, and the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also took part, the attendees said. The FBI’s audience includes senior officials, agents working on cases, other US agencies and international law enforcement partners.

One attendee described the gathering as a law enforcement meeting for agencies and the people who support their work, rather than a conventional crypto industry conference. The emphasis is on investigations, national security and illicit finance, including the methods used to follow transactions and recover assets.

Topics reportedly included cartel activity, terrorist funding, online fraud, scams, child sexual abuse material, human trafficking and violent offences such as wrench attacks, in which criminals use physical threats to obtain digital assets. Sessions also examined new hacking techniques, North Korean operations and methods for sharing intelligence between authorities and companies.

Industry involvement has grown

The symposium was once more heavily dominated by public agencies, according to one person who spoke to CoinDesk. Its membership has gradually broadened as investigators have become more reliant on commercial analysts, cybersecurity specialists and crypto firms that can identify suspicious activity or trace stolen funds.

That evolution reflects the changing role of digital assets in criminal investigations. The event focuses on practical questions: which attack methods are emerging, which investigative approaches are producing results, and how North Korean operatives are targeting cryptocurrency businesses.

A presentation addressed the April Drift exploit, in which attackers took administrative control of a Solana-based decentralised exchange and used an altered token as collateral. The theft exceeded $270 million, according to the source familiar with the presentation.

A separate public reference to the event came from Roman Bieda, an executive at Token Recovery. In a LinkedIn post, Bieda said the 2024 symposium had been held in Austin and described it as an international meeting of public- and private-sector specialists. He said subjects included money laundering, ransomware, human trafficking and crypto scams. Bieda, who attended for the third time, did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

The restrained style is intentional. Participants told the publication that the meeting lacks the polished settings and promotional atmosphere of major crypto gatherings. Its purpose is to exchange operational knowledge about current offenders, effective investigative practices and threats likely to emerge next.

The FBI’s expanding crypto role

The bureau created its Virtual Assets Unit in February 2022. The unit combines expertise from the FBI’s criminal and cyber divisions, supporting investigations, intelligence analysis and efforts to trace illicit proceeds. At the time, the agency said digital assets were appearing in cases involving ransomware, child exploitation, murder-for-hire schemes and terrorist financing.

The FBI had already been investigating virtual-asset crime before the unit was established, and one source told CoinDesk that the bureau has maintained a dedicated team in the area for roughly a decade.

The need for that expertise has grown as sanctioned governments and groups use cryptocurrency in financial and security operations. Chainalysis reported that crypto received by sanctioned entities increased by 694% in 2025, with Russia, Iran and North Korea identified as increasingly active users of digital assets.

Against that backdrop, the symposium’s expanding private-sector presence illustrates how closely law enforcement now works with the cryptocurrency industry. Companies provide transaction analysis, security intelligence and technical knowledge, while investigators bring information about active cases and criminal networks. The low-profile exchange has therefore become an important bridge between public authorities and an industry whose systems are increasingly involved in both legitimate finance and serious crime.