Criminal assets: EU signs a protocol covering cryptoassets

An international agreement still requiring ratification

Recovering criminal proceeds is the subject of a new European commitment. On 14 October 2026, in Strasbourg, the European Union and eight countries signed an additional protocol to the Warsaw Convention. The Council of Europe specifies that the assets concerned include cryptoassets. The first state signatories are Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino and the United Kingdom. Signing took place during the Octopus conference on cybercrime.

This step does not make every new provision immediately applicable. The protocol requires five ratifications, including three from Council of Europe members, to enter into force. The Commission indicates that EU conclusion of the agreement will require a Council decision and the European Parliament's consent. This is a treaty under the Council of Europe, an organisation distinct from the European Union, rather than a regulation imposing an identical procedure across all twenty-seven member states upon signature.

Immobilising assets before they can be moved

The arrangement updates the 2005 Warsaw Convention and strengthens several recovery stages. Where conditions justify it, authorities will be able to have assets urgently frozen or seized without prior notice. The objective is to prevent their transfer or concealment during an investigation. The protocol also broadens confiscation possibilities to assets associated with wider criminal activity, including specified cases without a criminal conviction. Third-party holdings may be targeted while protecting holders acting in good faith.

The mechanisms described in the protocol do not all perform the same function in an investigation or produce the same legal consequences for the property concerned. Freezing temporarily prevents use of property; confiscation provides for permanent deprivation within a defined legal framework. An asset's digital nature does not remove this distinction. The work involved in finding an address on a blockchain, identifying the person who holds it and subsequently obtaining actual control over the funds also consists of separate stages.

A transaction's visibility is investigative evidence rather than, on its own, a seizure decision or a technical means of moving tokens.

Coordinating services across borders

The text provides for bodies responsible for tracing assets and managing seized holdings. It strengthens financial intelligence units and access to financial information and virtual-asset data. Cooperation is to involve more information exchanges, joint investigations and direct contacts between specialised services. For certain urgent requests, the prescribed response deadline falls to three days. This organisation seeks to reduce the mismatch between a national investigation and funds circulating across several countries.

The Commission presents the agreement as a complement to existing European anti-money-laundering instruments and recognition of freezing and confiscation decisions. For cryptoassets, its significance for all of these reasons concerns authorities' legal and operational coordination. It creates neither universal wallet access nor an exemption from satisfying the legal conditions for each measure. Signature opens a new ratification phase; effective application will subsequently depend on the parties' commitments and the procedures prescribed by the treaty. The announcement of a signature and the eventual application of the new provisions therefore remain separate stages in this process.