At the 2025 Bitwarden Open Source Security Summit, WIRED’s Andy Greenberg sat down for a fiery conversation with GigaOm analyst Paul Stringfellow to discuss a revelation that turned his decades-old reporting upside down: Bitcoin became a criminal’s worst nightmare.
In 2011, Greenberg thought he had discovered the story of a lifetime: digital cash that promised complete anonymity. A decade later, that story has completely flipped.
“I gradually realized that I was completely wrong about Bitcoin. In fact, it was the opposite of unprofitable.”
Around 2014, law enforcement discovered something remarkable: Bitcoin’s blockchain was a permanent, traceable record.
Enter Tigran Gambarian, an IRS criminal investigator who would become the protagonist of Greenberg’s book. searcher in the darkThe same IRS unit that took down Al Capone for tax evasion now has a new weapon: blockchain forensics, Working with cryptocurrency tracing startup Chainalysis, Gambarian developed technologies that provide even greater transparency than traditional financial systems,
“They can follow the money with even greater financial forensic power than the traditional finance system.”
The scale of what happened next was staggering. Greenberg studied several landmark cases that reshaped law enforcement’s thinking about cryptocurrencies:
silk road corruption: Corrupt DEA and Secret Service agents received Bitcoin payments from the site’s kingpin. Blockchain analysis proved that these were not individual investments – they were payments to investors who sold law enforcement secrets.
mount gox robbery: Investigators trace 650,000 stolen Bitcoins to Russian cybercriminals, leading to arrests while on vacation in Greece.
alphabet:Federal agents dismantled this dark web drug marketplace after cryptocurrency tracing identified kingpin Alexander Keyes as operating out of Bangkok. Advanced crypto techniques revealed the location of secret servers in Lithuania.
welcome to video: Blockchain analysis reveals a dark web market for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Investigators identified 337 perpetrators worldwide and rescued 23 children.
“The first, second and third largest seizures of funds in the history of the US Justice Department – billions of dollars.”
Gambarian and his associates carried out the first, second and third largest financial seizures in U.S. Justice Department history. Not just in cryptocurrency – in any crime category, period.
But here’s the paradox: If cryptocurrency tracing is so powerful, why do ransomware attacks, pig slaughter scams, and North Korean hackers keep stealing billions?
Answer: Recognition does not equal accountability.
Law enforcement can identify criminals with incredible accuracy through blockchain analysis
But criminals operating from Russia, North Korea or lawless Southeast Asian regions remain beyond reach.
Ransomware profits dropped significantly last year when federal investigators seized websites and cryptocurrencies – even without arrests
Pig slaughter scam steals tens of billions annually through forced labor, yet Chinese crime bosses face minimal consequences
Difference: Law enforcement has not prioritized crypto tracing investigations against large-scale scam operations
“Thanks to blockchain you can identify criminals with incredible accuracy, but if they are beyond the reach of Western law enforcement, they may still be beyond accountability.”
As the discussion concluded, Stringfellow highlighted a provocative tension: While blockchain analysis empowers law enforcement, it also raises deep privacy concerns for everyone else. The same technology that catches criminals can potentially track law-abiding citizens, making this book much more than just a true crime thriller.
“When you read this book, you realize how good accountants are.”
Forensic accountants perform some of the most exciting detective work of the digital age. They analyze blockchain transactions, where hackers and traditional law enforcement often come to a standoff.
searcher in the dark is now available and provides comprehensive in-depth information on these cases and the forensic techniques that led to their resolution.
For anyone interested in cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, or the intersection of technology and crime, The Complete Fireside Chat features cases that read like detective novels but are completely real. Hear directly from Greenberg about the complete inversion of what criminals thought they knew about covert operations, international manhunts, and remaining anonymous online.