The Federal Bureau of Investigation has held its ninth annual Virtual Asset Technical Exchange in San Antonio, Texas, according to reports from CoinDesk. The invitation-only symposium, formerly known as the Virtual Currency Symposium, brings together law enforcement officials, overseas investigators and crypto-security professionals to exchange information on crypto crime. The event is capped at approximately 50 private-sector vendors and partners, with total attendance running into the hundreds, as reported by CoinDesk. Recoveris, a digital-asset investigation and recovery company, listed the FBI Virtual Asset Technical Exchange in San Antonio for September 2-3 on its 2026 conference schedule, providing a more precise timetable for the gathering.
The three-day event covered a wide range of crypto-related criminal activities, as reported by CoinDesk. Discussions addressed the illicit use of virtual assets by cartels and terrorist financing, cyber-enabled fraud, scams, child sexual abuse material, human trafficking and violent crime, including so-called wrench attacks. Attendees also examined emerging hacks, North Korean activity and ways for industry and law enforcement to share intelligence. The symposium featured keynote speeches, panel discussions, fireside chats and networking opportunities, with companies demonstrating their platforms in demo rooms.
Blockchain forensics firms, including Chainalysis and TRM Labs, attended this year's event, according to CoinDesk reports. TRM Labs confirmed its attendance to CoinDesk, while Predicate confirmed that co-founder and CEO Nikhil Raghuveera presented at the event on stablecoin compliance and the GENIUS Act. Representatives from the Security Alliance (SEAL), a nonprofit focused on protecting the crypto ecosystem from cyber threats, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) also attended, as reported by CoinDesk. One attendee described the meeting as a law-enforcement forum, stating "This is not a crypto event. It is a law enforcement event."
The symposium covered emerging threats and attack methods, including the Drift exploit where hackers gained administrative control and used a manipulated token as collateral to steal more than ₹2,100 crore from the Solana-based decentralized exchange in April, according to CoinDesk. Current blockchain-forensics data puts the Drift loss at approximately $285 million, with attackers spending weeks preparing the operation before draining assets in roughly 12 minutes. TRM Labs reported that North Korea-linked actors were responsible for the attack, while the firm's subsequent first-half review attributed approximately $643 million in first-half 2026 crypto thefts to North Korea-linked actors alone. The gathering has expanded to include more representatives from the crypto industry compared to its earlier government-focused format.
The symposium reflects the growing dependency of law enforcement on crypto companies, blockchain analysts and security researchers to identify attackers and trace stolen funds, as reported by CoinDesk. The FBI reported that its Internet Crime Complaint Center received 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency during 2025, with reported losses exceeding $11 billion. Investment fraud accounted for almost half of cyber-enabled scam losses, with cryptocurrency investment fraud alone generating more than $7.2 billion in reported losses during 2025. The FBI has maintained a team focused on virtual-asset investigations for roughly a decade, with the agency investigating virtual-asset cases prior to 2022. Chainalysis estimates that sanctioned entities received roughly $104 billion in cryptocurrency during 2025, up 694% from the previous year, while TRM Labs reported that 2026 had recorded roughly 333 crypto hacking incidents involving approximately $1.73 billion in stolen assets.
