By Dimitrij Gede, Vice Chair, Digital Asset Task Force, Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime

The Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC), through its Digital Asset Task Force (DATF), will host Attribution Games Berlin, an on-site wallet attribution hackathon, on 24–25 November 2026 at the Bitvavo Event Space and the w3.hub in Berlin. The event is co-organised with Siedler Legal and supported by Bitvavo, Bundesblock, DAAvern, Elliptic and Recoveris.

Attribution, which means establishing who controls a cryptocurrency wallet, underpins crypto investigations, sanctions screening and compliance decisions. Today it is largely reactive. Labels often appear only after funds have moved, and they sit in closed datasets with no shared standard for how they are evidenced, graded, updated or withdrawn. As a result, services that move illicit funds can continue to operate unlabelled. Attribution Games Berlin tests a proactive approach: identifying these services and labelling them in the format of a hackathon.

Over two days and in a controlled environment, selected teams will identify and document wallet addresses used by high-risk services and scams, using open sources and outreach-based collection under specified Rules of Engagement. Every submission must include evidence and is reviewed by a panel of judges.

The results will feed the DATF's work towards the launch of the Attribution Center: an independent, shared and standards-based attribution resource built to bridge public and private interests. Verified findings will go to law enforcement first and then to stakeholders with a legitimate interest. The methodology and identified approaches will be published in a paper after the event.

"We have identified election interference involving virtual assets and over-the-counter providers in multiple countries. If authorities conducted cryptocurrency attribution, which they don't, they would see what we see. Everyone we speak to agrees this is important, yet each assumes someone else will act. That must stop."

— Michal Gromek, Chair, Digital Asset Task Force, Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime

"It takes a network to fight a network."

— Che Sidanius, Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime

How to take part

Participation is by invitation and subject to approval. Investigators, analysts and researchers who want to join can register here.

Questions? Email us.

About GCFFC

The Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) is a public-private alliance founded in 2018 to strengthen the fight against financial crime. It raises awareness, promotes information sharing between public and private entities, identifies emerging threats and best practice, and proposes solutions to pressure points in the AML/CFT framework. Its Digital Asset Task Force (DATF) focuses on solutions to questions of financial crime involving virtual assets.