Crypto Aggression: Gendarmerie Trains Investigators from 26 Countries

Lille, early October. In a room filled with investigators from 26 countries, screens display Bitcoin transactions as everyone seeks to trace the dirty money back to its holder. The gendarmerie hosted the latest edition of its "Crypto Workshop" from October 5 to 9, 2026, as France grapples with a wave of kidnappings linked to cryptocurrencies, which the gendarmerie had already detailed in its response in September.

The news is good, and it must be said. However, it will not make the ransoms demanded in Bitcoin disappear. Key points of this article:

• Lille hosted the "Crypto Workshop" with 26 countries united to track dirty money on blockchains.
• France is facing an alarming wave of kidnappings related to cryptocurrencies, with a worrying increase in cases since 2023.

Lille Crypto Workshop: 26 Countries Focused on the Same Blockchains

The crypto group of the National Cyber Unit (UNCyber) of the gendarmerie is leading the event with logistical support from the cyber training center of the Ministry of the Interior. There were few speeches on the agenda. Participants mainly worked on real cases, dissected in workshops, to learn how to read a blockchain as one would analyze a bank statement.

According to the report published by UNCyber on LinkedIn, the 2026 edition reached several milestones. No less than 26 countries were represented, from the United States to Australia, including Norway, Slovenia, Hungary, and the United Kingdom. Europol (the European Union's police cooperation agency) co-organized the event with Denmark. The report of the Crypto Workshop 2026 published by the National Cyber Unit of the gendarmerie. Source: LinkedIn

Two firsts deserve attention. A magistrate participated for the first time: an American seconded to Eurojust (the European agency that coordinates national public prosecutors). The Metz branch also made its debut, indicating that training is reaching field units. This detail matters. An investigator capable of tracing a ransom from Metz saves hours on a case where every minute counts.

In its report, the unit summarizes the spirit of the workshop with a formula, "Anticipate, share, decrypt", and states the challenge directly:

In the face of increasingly complex uses of cryptocurrencies in criminal activities, better mastering digital assets and their mechanisms is an essential lever for identifying perpetrators, tracing financial flows, and enhancing the effectiveness of investigations.

National Cyber Unit of the gendarmerie, on LinkedIn

Crypto Investigators: France Can No Longer Afford to Wait

The context gives weight to this training. The National Anti-Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office (Pnaco) has recorded 135 kidnappings or attempts related to crypto assets in France since 2023. The counter showed 18 incidents in 2024, then 67 in 2025, and already 47 cases in the first four months of 2026. One every two or three days.

In this type of case, the violence is artisanal and the ransom is digital. This is where crypto investigators come into play. The gendarmerie described it in its immersion dedicated to crypto kidnappings, published in September: while intervention units prepare for the release of hostages, a group dedicated to crypto assets and money laundering tracks the ransom in real time to try to block it.

The principle can be summed up in a few words. A blockchain like Bitcoin's is a public ledger where each transfer remains recorded forever. Addresses do not carry names, but they leave traces: you send funds to a platform that verifies the identity of its clients, and the thread reconnects to a real person. A trained investigator sees more of a carnival mask than an invisibility cloak.

Crypto Tracing: Applaud, Yes, But With Eyes Open

Let’s be realistic. Five days of workshops in Lille do not make up for years of delay against networks that recruit their operatives on messaging apps and launder through established circuits. Criminals also read police reports. Transaction mixers, bridges between blockchains, and platforms set up beyond the reach of European judges offer them plenty of loopholes, and the race never stops.

Tracing, by definition, comes after the crime. It helps recover a ransom, rarely to prevent a commando from knocking at your door. Prevention involves other projects, starting with the protection of personal data of holders. The leak of Ledger's customer database in 2020 showed how an address linked to a wallet purchase can turn an individual into a target.

There remains a counterpoint that the crypto community will not fail to raise. The tools that unmask a kidnapper can just as easily scrutinize any wallet. The line between investigation and surveillance deserves a real debate, but it does not justify leaving unarmed gendarmes facing ransoms demanded in Bitcoin.

Cooperation is starting to pay off in front of judges. In April, Pnaco already recorded 88 indictments and 75 provisional detentions in cases of kidnappings linked to crypto assets. More than ten of those involved were minors.

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