The European Union and eight states signed a protocol in Strasbourg on 14 October that extends existing frameworks for freezing, seizing and confiscating criminal assets to explicitly cover cryptoassets. The signing took place during the Octopus conference on cybercrime, organised by the Council of Europe.
Alongside the EU, the signatories are Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro, San Marino and the United Kingdom. The protocol is not an EU regulation but an instrument of the Council of Europe, an international organisation separate from the bloc, and it complements the Warsaw Convention of 2005, which governs cooperation against money laundering and terrorism financing.
For a European audience increasingly exposed to cross-border crypto transactions, the protocol matters because it updates a two-decade-old legal architecture built before digital assets became a routine vehicle for moving illicit funds. The Warsaw Convention predates the emergence of cryptocurrencies as a mainstream financial instrument, and the new text is designed to close gaps that criminal networks have been able to exploit by moving value across jurisdictions faster than authorities could respond.
Wider powers, tighter deadlines
The protocol allows authorities to carry out emergency freezes or seizures without prior notice to those concerned, where conditions permit. It also expands the scope of confiscation to assets linked to other criminal activities, in some cases without requiring a criminal conviction, and extends this to assets held by third parties, while building in protections for holders who acted in good faith.
On cooperation between national authorities, the protocol allows response times for certain urgent requests to be cut to three days, a sharp reduction compared with the slower procedures that have historically hampered the tracing of assets, including digital ones, once they cross borders.
EU process still pending
Signature alone does not bind the European Union to the protocol. For the EU to conclude the agreement, a Council decision is required, together with the consent of the European Parliament. The protocol itself will only enter into force once five states have ratified it, including at least three Council of Europe member states.
The European Commission has described the protocol as a complement to existing EU mechanisms covering confiscation, the mutual recognition of judicial decisions, and anti-money laundering rules, rather than a replacement for them. The practical effect, once ratified, would be to give investigators and courts across the signatory states a common legal basis for acting quickly against cryptoassets suspected of criminal origin, including in emergency situations where delay could allow funds to be moved beyond reach.
No timetable has been given for when ratifications might be completed or when the protocol could take effect.
