The Centre for Finance and Security (CFS) at RUSI has launched a new taskforce to examine the implications for international security of the use of cryptoassets, with funding support from Chainalysis.
The Crypto and International Security Taskforce will assess the threats associated with the illicit use of crypto, while also considering its legitimate applications and the policy consequences of different regulatory and enforcement responses. It will bring together senior government officials, law enforcement and regulatory authorities, researchers and private sector experts.
There is a pressing need for this work. Generative AI is accelerating malicious activity faster than it can be investigated, and nation-states are plugging into the illicit crypto supply chains originally built for cybercriminals and organised crime groups.
The Taskforce will convene several meetings. These will focus on:
- Threat assessment: mapping how illicit actors are exploiting crypto for organised crime, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion and political interference;Â
- Response: examining the regulatory, law enforcement and industry tools available to counter illicit use;Â
- Protective and legitimate use cases: considering how crypto and blockchain analytics can support civil society or aid/humanitarian efforts.
The Taskforce will also hold a capstone conference to share its findings and recommendations with a wider audience of policymakers and practitioners. Alongside these meetings, it will convene a special session at RUSI’s SIFMANet Summit in London in December 2026, focusing on the use of crypto in sanctions circumvention.
Findings from each meeting will feed into a final set of practical Taskforce recommendations for policymakers and industry participants.
As crypto becomes further embedded in the toolkit of criminal networks and hostile states, understanding both the risks and the legitimate uses has never been more urgent. This Taskforce is designed to give policymakers a clearer way through that complexity.
Tom Keatinge
Director, CFS
As with all technologies, cryptoassets can be used for good and for bad. The good news is that cryptoassets are transparent. A more transparent financial system can be a safer one.
Jonathan Levin, Co-Founder and CEO
Chainalysis
The Taskforce will convene several meetings. These will focus on:
- Threat assessment: mapping how illicit actors are exploiting crypto for organised crime, terrorist financing, sanctions evasion and political interference;Â
- Response: examining the regulatory, law enforcement and industry tools available to counter illicit use;Â
- Protective and legitimate use cases: considering how crypto and blockchain analytics can support civil society or aid/humanitarian efforts.
The Taskforce will also hold a capstone conference to share its findings and recommendations with a wider audience of policymakers and practitioners. Alongside these meetings, it will convene a special session at RUSI’s SIFMANet Summit in London in December 2026, focusing on the use of crypto in sanctions circumvention.
Findings from each meeting will feed into a final set of practical Taskforce recommendations for policymakers and industry participants.
When access to money is used as an instrument of repression, financial autonomy becomes a matter of security. Crypto can help people preserve resources and sustain independent communities when banks are closed to them. Protecting and expanding that potential will be one of the topics explored by this Taskforce.
Kinga Redlowska
Head of CFS Europe
Adversaries fund, coordinate, and manage their operations on-chain. Blockchain analysis is network analysis. Chainalysis collects deep intelligence on the financial infrastructure behind threat networks and their shared connections, and we look forward to partnering with RUSI to further shine a light on this activity.
Kaitlin Martin, Senior Analyst, Sanctions & National Security Intelligence
Chainalysis
Visit the taskforce page to find out more information:Â RUSI Crypto and International Security Taskforce
More about SIFMANet (Sanctions and Illicit Finance Monitoring and Analysis Network), can be found here: Sanctions and Illicit Finance Monitoring and Analysis Network (SIFMANet)
Chainalysis' website can be visited here: The Blockchain Data Platform - Chainalysis