Global law-enforcement officials and financial-crime experts said authorities must move faster and set clearer, common rules to curb crypto-enabled crime, as the 9th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Crypto-assets closed in Vienna this week.
The two-day meeting, co-organised by Europol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the Basel Institute on Governance, drew more than 250 participants in person and over 1,000 online from police agencies, prosecutors, regulators, researchers and blockchain-analytics firms.
Delegates reported increasingly professional tactics by criminals using cryptoassets, including layering across chains and services, mule networks and the use of mixers and token bridges, raising risks that extend beyond investor scams to drug trafficking, terrorism financing and sanctions evasion.
Participants prioritised three tracks for action: harmonised and evidence-based standards for blockchain investigations and intelligence; faster cross-border cooperation between investigators, prosecutors and supervisors; and scaled-up training to build specialist teams.
Organisers highlighted recent cases in which coordinated operations and advanced analytics helped trace and freeze assets, while warning that mutual legal assistance still lags the borderless speed of blockchains.
A side event led by the Wolfsberg Group underscored the need for structured information-sharing channels between banks and virtual-asset providers as traditional and decentralised finance converge.
Officials said better research and reliable data on illicit crypto flows are needed to calibrate risk and policy.
Capacity gaps remain acute in many jurisdictions, where frontline officers lack tooling and skills to pursue on-chain leads or recover assets for victims.
Conference hosts said the next phase of work will focus on codifying investigative standards, expanding public-private partnerships and testing mechanisms for rapid inter-agency requests.
The organisers framed the agenda as a bid to ensure financial innovation serves the public interest while limiting abuse by organised crime.
Breakout sessions examined standardisation of evidence handling, seizure and recovery workflows, and techniques, with proposals be consolidated into guidance for agencies.
The agenda acknowledges a long-standing execution gap: investigators can often see suspicious flows but struggle to convert them into timely seizures and prosecutions across borders.
Progress hinges on three practical fixes, standard playbooks for on-chain evidence, faster legal gateways for data and asset-freezing, and sustained training budgets.