TLDR The FBI held its Virtual Asset Technical Exchange in San Antonio, drawing several hundred investigators and crypto specialists. TRM Labs confirmed it attended, and Predicate CEO Nikhil R
The FBI held its latest Virtual Asset Technical Exchange in San Antonio. The event brought together investigators, foreign police partners and crypto security experts. It comes as U.S. crypto-related complaints topped $11 billion in reported losses in 2025.
CoinDesk reported that the invitation-only event took place in September. It was the ninth year of a forum once called the Virtual Currency Symposium. The FBI declined to comment on the event.
Recoveris, a digital asset recovery company, listed the forum on its 2026 conference schedule. It placed the event in San Antonio on Sept. 2 and 3.
The event reportedly drew several hundred people. Private companies and partners were capped at about 50, according to people familiar with the meeting.
TRM Labs confirmed it attended. Predicate said its CEO, Nikhil Raghuveera, presented on stablecoin compliance and the GENIUS Act. Sources said Chainalysis, the Security Alliance and FinCEN were also there, though Chainalysis and the FBI did not confirm this.
Topics included tracing illicit funds, terrorist financing, cartels, scams, human trafficking and violent attacks on crypto holders. One attendee said, “This is not a crypto event. It is a law enforcement event.”
The FBI created its Virtual Assets Unit in 2022. The unit became operational on Feb. 7, 2022. It handles blockchain analysis, seizure support and training for agents.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received 181,565 crypto-related complaints in 2025. Reported losses passed $11 billion.
Crypto investment fraud alone caused more than $7.2 billion in reported losses. These numbers come only from filed complaints. They do not capture all crypto crime.
One presentation reportedly covered the April attack on Drift Protocol, a Solana-based platform. The loss is estimated at about $285 million.
TRM Labs said attackers tricked Drift Security Council signers into pre-signing transactions. The attackers then used a fake token as collateral. They drained real assets in about 12 minutes on April 1.
TRM linked the attack to North Korean actors. The firm said North Korea-linked groups took about $643 million, or roughly 66% of crypto stolen in the first half of 2026. Drift and the $292 million KelpDAO attack made up about $577 million of that total.
In July, a wallet tied to the Drift exploit moved about $44 million in Ether into Tornado Cash. The wallet had been mostly inactive for several months.
Chainalysis estimated that sanctioned entities received about $104 billion in crypto in 2025. That was up 694% from the year before. The firm said Russia, Iran and North Korea drove much of this activity.
The FBI has not released an agenda, attendee list or report from the September meeting. It continues to direct victims to IC3 and local field offices.
TRM Labs reported in September that 2026 had seen about 333 crypto hacks so far. Those incidents involved roughly $1.73 billion in stolen assets.
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