The FBI’s ninth annual Virtual Asset Technical Exchange, formerly known as the Virtual Currency Symposium, brought together U.S. and overseas law enforcement officials, crypto-security professionals and blockchain-forensics firms to examine digital-asset crime. The invitation-only event was held in September in San Antonio, Texas, according to attendees, although an earlier account described the same ninth annual gathering as a two-day meeting in New Orleans on August 27-28, co-hosted with the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. A 2024 edition was held in Austin, where attendees discussed Tornado Cash and a resurgence in pig-butchering scams, while NFTs received less attention. TRM Labs confirmed its attendance at the San Antonio event, while Chainalysis declined comment on reported participation. Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder and CEO of Predicate, presented on stablecoin compliance and GENIUS. Representatives of the Security Alliance and the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, also participated. The government-funded symposium limits private-sector vendors and partners to about 50, with total attendance reaching several hundred. Discussions covered cartel and terrorist financing, cyber-enabled fraud, scams, child sexual abuse material, human trafficking, wrench attacks, emerging hacks, North Korean activity and intelligence sharing. Separately, the FBI seized more than $560,000 in crypto intended for Hamas’ Al Qassam Brigades and joined agencies in Japan, Australia and Germany in identifying North Korean group WaterPlum, which they said stole about $10.71 million in crypto. The FBI’s Virtual Assets Unit, launched on February 7, 2022, supports investigations and victim outreach; the bureau estimates its efforts prevented roughly $285 million in investment-fraud losses.