Portrait of Bernhard Haslhofer, research group leader at Complexity Science Hub Vienna.

Short bio: EN | DE

Bernhard Haslhofer, Cryptoasset Analytics & Blockchain Forensics Researcher

I lead the Digital Currency Ecosystems research group at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna. My research develops computational methods for cryptoasset analytics and decentralized finance, digital crime and forensics, and large-scale disinformation.

I co-founded Iknaio Cryptoasset Analytics and serve as a court-certified expert in IT and cryptoasset forensics. I also teach courses on these topics at TU Wien.

Research Interests

Cryptoasset Analytics & DeFi: Quantitative methods for measuring cryptoasset ecosystems and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols at scale, from tracing fund flows across ledgers to analyzing investment strategies, risks, and structural dependencies.
Digital Crime & Forensics: Algorithms and open tools for tracing illicit fund flows and analyzing dark web ecosystems, producing forensic evidence that supports criminal investigations and prosecutions.
Large-Scale Disinformation: Network-analytic methods for understanding how disinformation spreads through online ecosystems and how coordinated campaigns can be detected at scale.

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Impact

Societal: our research methods supported the international law enforcement operation that took down over 373,000 illegal dark web sites.
Industry: the Iknaio spin-off and the open-source GraphSense platform.
Policy: evidence for central banks (BIS) and engagement in European policy debate.
Standards: Open Blockchain Intelligence Standards (OBIS), ResourceSync (NISO), Open Annotation (W3C), and Europeana Linked Open Data.

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Recent News

Oct 2026

I spoke on "Die offenen Flanken der Kryptoforensik: Von heuristischem Clustering zur agentischen KI" at the IT-Strafrechtstag 2026 at the University of Bayreuth.

Oct 2026

I gave a talk on the open flanks of crypto forensics, from heuristic address clustering to agentic AI, at the German nationwide meeting of the IuK and cybercrime prosecution units in Bamberg.

Sep 2026

At the INTERPOL New Technologies Forum in Vienna, I presented our findings on how reliable Bitcoin address clustering is in law enforcement contexts. Clustering is useful for generating leads, but it should not be used as evidence on its own.

Sep 2026

I presented our work on stablecoins under stress in a national economy at the ESMA Research Conference 2026 in Paris.

Sep 2026

Together with Thomas Goger from the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime, I presented "Operation Alice: Investigations as Code at the scale of 373,000 dark web sites" at the 10th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets in Luxembourg.

Sep 2026

We are hosting this year's INTERPOL New Technologies Forum (NTF) at the Complexity Science Hub on September 29-30.

Sep 2026

I gave a talk on making crypto investigations in cybercrime more efficient, from manual tracing to scalable investigations, at IECTIC 2026 in Kassel.

Aug 2026

We are organizing a breakout session on advancing interoperable blockchain intelligence at the 10th Global Conference on Criminal Finances and Cryptoassets in Luxembourg on September 15.

Jun 2026

We are hosting the upcoming 15th Illicit Networks Workshop at the Complexity Science Hub on June 29-30.

May 2026

I gave an invited talk on "The Privatization of Money: A Decade of Crypto, from Cypherpunk Utopia to Stablecoin Reality" at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin.

May 2026

New pre-print: Modern Portfolio Theory in the Crypto-Wilderness is now available on arXiv.

May 2026

I am co-organizing this year's Frontiers in DeFi workshop at the Einstein Center Berlin.