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10/07/2026 9:25 pm
TL;DR: A survey of over 800 public sector employees globally on cryptocurrency investigations found the report focused on perceptions, regional differences, resource constraints, and the expected rise in crypto involvement in criminal cases over the next five years, according to Chainalysis. The practical issue is not crypto adoption itself, but whether investigative teams can sustain the tooling, training, and operating model required to follow it.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Chainalysis: The 2024 State of Cryptocurrency Investigations Report
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should agencies organise access to crypto investigation cases?
A: Agencies should assign access by role, case stage, and jurisdiction, then remove permissions when the case closes.
Q: Why do crypto investigations become slow even with good tooling?
A: Tooling shortens analysis, but investigations still slow down when teams lack trained analysts, repeatable workflows, and clear approval paths.
Q: What do public-sector teams get wrong about blockchain intelligence?
A: They often treat blockchain intelligence as the whole solution instead of one part of a larger investigative process.
Practitioner guidance
- Separate investigative access by role and case stage Grant analysts, supervisors, and external partners only the case access they need for the current stage of work.
- Document the blockchain investigation workflow Define intake, triage, enrichment, escalation, and evidence preservation steps so investigators do not improvise under pressure.
- Pair blockchain intelligence with analyst training Train investigators to interpret transaction graphs, exchange touchpoints, and off-chain indicators in a consistent way.
What's in the full report
Chainalysis's full report covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Public-sector survey breakdowns by region, useful for comparing investigative maturity across jurisdictions
- Resource constraint findings that show where agencies struggle most in day-to-day case handling
- Future trend expectations for crypto involvement in criminal cases over the next five years
- Practical guidance on how blockchain intelligence tools support investigations and training programmes
👉 Read Chainalysis's 2024 State of Cryptocurrency Investigations Report →
Crypto investigations: what public-sector teams need to act on?
Explore further
10/07/2026 9:47 pm
Crypto investigations are becoming an identity and governance problem, not just an intelligence problem. Agencies can buy data feeds and analytics, but they still need governed access to cases, evidence, and partner data. That creates a familiar control question for security leaders: who can see what, when, and under what approval path? In public-sector operations, investigative maturity is as much about access governance as it is about blockchain visibility.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What should agencies do when crypto case volume starts rising?
A: They should expand training, tighten case access controls, and standardise the investigative workflow before volume forces improvisation. If case demand rises faster than governance, teams will create backlog, inconsistent evidence handling, and avoidable accountability gaps.
👉 Read our full editorial: Crypto investigations are a resource and training problem
