In this episode Ari sits down with Vanessa Targenian, Director of Research, Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) at Fidelity Investments, to discuss how blockchain technology is revolutionizing the way traditional financial institutions do business.

Today’s Guest

Vanessa Kargenian, Director of Research, Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT) at Fidelity Investments

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

In this episode Ari sits down with Max Bernt, Taxbit’s Managing Director for Europe, to discuss the fragmented global tax regulatory landscape, reporting standards, the impact of tax policy on the digital assets ecosystem, and Max’s journey from runway model to lawyer, judge to PhD, and tax policy expert.

Max Bernt, Managing Director, Europe, Taxbit

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

In this episode Ari sits down with author and journalist Emily Parker. No topic is off limits as they discuss Bitcoin ETFs, global regulation, the use of the internet by pro-democracy movements, and Emily’s life and work in Asia. Ari and Emily dive into the most pressing issues impacting crypto today in a fun and engaging discussion.

Today’s Guests

Emily Parker, Journalist

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Ari sits down with threat intelligence expert Jessica Davis to discuss the emerging digital battlefield. From terrorist financiers to North Korean cybercriminals Jessica maps the threat landscape and provides a nuanced perspective on the use of cryptocurrencies.

Today’s Guests

Jessica Davis, Threat Intelligence Expert

Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Resources

Insight Threat Intelligence Newsletter

About the Episode

In this breaking news episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with the US Treasury Department’s Deputy Assistant Secretary of Cyber and Chief AI Officer Todd Conklin to discuss Treasury’s report on “Managing Artificial Intelligence Risk in the Financial Services Sector,” and the risks and opportunities that come from the use of AI and other emerging technologies.

Today’s Guests

Todd Conklin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Cyber and Chief AI Officer, US Department of the Treasury

Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Resources

Managing Artificial Intelligence-Specific Cybersecurity Risks in the Financial Services Sector, US Department of the Treasury, March 2024

TRM Insights: US Treasury Issues Report on AI Cyber and Fraud Risks for Financial Institutions

In this episode, Ari sits down with Jarod Koopman, Executive Director of Cyber and Forensic Services for IRS - Criminal Investigation. They discuss IRS-CI’s unique role in crypto investigations, how this small law enforcement agency has seized $11 billion in cryptocurrencies, why Jarod is starting to see crypto in more cases, and what martial arts has to do with all of it.

Today’s Guests

Jarod Koopman, Executive Director of Cyber and Forensic Services for IRS - Criminal Investigation

Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

This week, CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero joins Ari for a discussion of the Commissioner’s journey, the CFTC’s regulation of crypto and the CFTC Technology Advisory Committee’s recent report on DeFi.

Today’s Guests

Christy Goldsmith Romero, Commissioner, CFTC

Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Resources

• TRM Insights: CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee Releases Report On Opportunities and Risks In DeFi

Ari sits down with Circle’s Dante Disparte to discuss his journey from Libra to Circle, the power of digital assets for financial inclusion, and the future of stablecoin regulation.

Today’s Guest

Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Global Head of Policy, Circle

Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Resources

• About Dante Disparte
• About Circle
• TRM Insights: Stablecoin Summer: How three months of policy and innovation could shape the future of the ecosystem
• Circle Report: State of the USDC Economy

Carole House, former US Treasury and White House National Security Council official, joins Ari to discuss the nexus between crypto and national security. Carole, the primary author of the White House Executive Order on Digital Assets and the recent CFTC report on DeFi, talks about these important reports, the process behind them, and how to mitigate North Korea, terrorist financing, ransomware and other national security challenges in the digital world.

Today’s Guest

Carole House, Former US Treasury and White House Cybersecurity Official

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Resources

• TRM Insights: CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee Releases Report On Opportunities and Risks In DeFi
• CFTC Technology Advisory Committee - Report on Decentralized Finance
• TRM Insights: Biden’s Executive Order On Crypto Is Out — Read TRM’s Quick Take
• TRM Insights: North Korean Hackers Stole $600 Million in Crypto in 2023
• TRM Report: Global Crypto Policy Review & Outlook 2023/24
• TRM Illicit Ecosystem Report
• About Carole House
• Carole House NFT: CoinDesk Coordinating the Federal Government's Approach to Crypto

Ari sits down with WIRED magazine’s Andy Greenberg and TRM’s Chris Janczewski, a former IRS-CI agent and the protagonist of Andy’s book Tracer’s in the Dark, to discuss how Chris and other investigators track and trace crypto to build investigations and hunt illicit actors on the blockchain.

Today’s Guests

• Andy Greenberg, Senior Writer, WIRED magazine
• Chris Janczewski, Head of Global Investigations, TRM Labs
• Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

Resources

• TRM Insights: Tracers in the Dark: An Inside Look into Cracking Crypto's Biggest Cases
• TRM Insights: North Korean Hackers Stole $600 Million in Crypto in 2023
• TRM Insights: Hack Hauls Halve From 2022
• TRM Insights: CFTC’s Technology Advisory Committee Releases Report On Opportunities and Risks In DeFi
• TRM Talks: Investigating and Prosecuting a Crypto Case
• CFTC Technology Advisory Committee - Report on Decentralized Finance
• About Chris Janczewski
• About Andy Greenberg
• Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency by Andy Greenberg

In this episode, TRM's global policy team - Ari Redbord, Isabella Chase and Angela Ang - got together, in-person, to dissect the latest regulatory news of the quarter. The result was a 20-minute rapid fire, wide-ranging discussion of macro and micro digital assets policy across the globe. From the UK to the U.S., the EU to Australia and beyond, TRM's Policy Team discussed the U.S. Treasury's recent proposed rule on mixers, what may be coming for DeFi regulation, and took viewers on a journey around the world for the latest on crypto policy and regulatory developments.

In this episode TRM's Ari Redbord sat down with Santa Clara Prosecutor Erin West of REACT Task Force at ACAMS in Las Vegas. Erin, the conference's keynote speaker, discussed her journey and why she has a laser focus on rooting out "pig butchering."

In pig butchering, also-known-as "romance scams," scammers encounter victims on dating sites, social media websites, or even random texts masquerading as a wrong number. Scammers initiate relationships with victims and slowly gain their trust, eventually introducing the idea of making a business investment using cryptocurrency. Victims are persuaded to invest money and once the money is sent to the fake investment app, the scammer vanishes with all the victim’s money. The term “pig butchering” comes from the idea of “fattening” up the victim as much as possible before stealing the money. These cases often involve victims who have lost their life savings, leaving the victims devastated and desperate for help.

In this episode, Erin discusses the scourge of pig butchering and how she is leveraging blockchain intelligence to counter the threat including through the Tracer Fellowship program, a partnership with TRM Labs and her Crypto Coalition, through which TRM is offering a 12-month fellowship program which will award a select number of active law enforcement investigators free active to TRM's platform.

In this TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Lazarus Heist’s Geoff White to discuss his latest book Rinsed. Geoff discuss the stages of money laundering and provides colorful examples of placement, layering and integration from Pablo Escobar to North Korean cybercriminals. Ari and Geoff hit topics from bulk cash smuggling to crypto mixing in this wide ranging discussion that brings money laundering to life.

Today’s Guests

Geoff White, Author and Journalist

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

It has been a busy 2023 in Australia with policymakers consulting on crypto licensing, AML/CTF reform, and more. Australia is home to a growing crypto ecosystem - crypto-assets are the second most popular investment after shares. With that growth has come regulatory scrutiny focused on consumer protection, combatting financial crime and creating a modern, risk-based regime for crypto-assets. In this episode, TRM's Ari Redbord and Angela Ang are joined by Joni Pirovich at BADAS*L, Brad Brown at AUSTRAC, and Steve Vallas at Blockchain APAC to discuss crypto regulatory developments in Australia.

In this TRM Talks, Ari Redbord is joined by Jean Lee, writer, commentator and expert on North Korea. She is co-host of the Peabody-nominated Lazarus Heist podcast on the BBC World Service.
Lee led the Associated Press news agency’s coverage of the Korean Peninsula as bureau chief from 2008 to 2013. In 2011, she became the first American reporter granted extensive access on the ground in North Korea, and in January 2012, she opened AP’s Pyongyang bureau.
In this episode Lee discusses the historic meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, how North Korea has developed a cyber army, and the importance of understanding the history of the Korean Peninsula.

Lee discusses North Korea's pivot to theft in the crypto ecosystem and how law enforcement and regulators are using authorities to mitigate the risk of North Korea cyber attacks. This is an in-depth and fast paced discussion into some of the most interesting and timely issues in the crypto space.

Despite the so-called "crypto winter," we have seen a flurry of institutional adoption. But, as the ecosystem grows so does the need to keep funds safe. In this TRM Talks Ari Redbord sits down with Fireblocks' Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer Jason Allegrante to discuss protecting the crypto ecosystem from hacks and other exploits, how Fireblocks works with Blockchain Intelligence like TRM Labs, and how policy makers can work with industry to craft sound regulatory frameworks.

The U.S. Justice Department set up the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) in 2021 amid growing concerns about the use of cryptocurrency for illicit finance including national security threats from North Korea, sanctions evasion, terrorists and weapons proliferators. In 2023, DOJ announced that the the NCET has been merged into the Department's computer crimes section. In this episode TRM's Ari Redbord sits down with the newly appointed NCET Acting Director Claudia Quiroz to discuss the move and the future of crypto-related investigations and prosecutions.

The European Banking Authority's Elisabeth Noble joins TRM's Isabella Chase and Ari Redbord for an in-depth discussion of what's next for MiCA.
Elisabeth, a Senior Policy Expert at the EBA, leads the EBA’s work on crypto-assets and innovation facilitators and coordinates the European Forum for Innovation Facilitators. She is contributing to the development of the new EU Digital Finance Strategy and was a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation.
In other words, Elisabeth is exactly who you want to hear from when it comes to MiCA implementation!

In April, the U.S. Treasury Department issued its 42-page DeFi Risk Assessment laying out various money laundering risks for DeFi. The assessment, at the end, poses a series of discussion questions. On July 24 TRM Labs is joined by three of the foremost experts on DeFi and regulation to answer these questions.

TRM's Ari Redbord is joined by Rebecca Rettig, Chief Policy Officer, Polygon Labs; Michael Mosier, Espresso Systems and former Acting Director of FinCEN; and, Jai Ramaswamy, Chief Legal Officer, A16Z, and former DOJ money laundering chief to discuss the questions posed in the DeFi Risk Assessment.

In this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with the Chief of IRS-Criminal Investigations Jim Lee.

For this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with former Treasury Official Eric Lorber of PWC and Isabella Edmonds of GeoComply to talk sanctions compliance ahead of a TRM Talks with OFAC's Dallas Woodrum.

For this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations Steve Francis.

In this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with former U.S. Treasury Official and Founder of Capitol Peak Strategies Alex Zerden.

The state of Wyoming is known as the Wild West – a land of wide open spaces, the nation's most iconic national parks, and rodeo broncin' bucks. But Wyoming, over the last few years, has become known for something else – cryptocurrency. So how has Wyoming become the new frontier for financial innovation? In this episode Ari sits down with Anthony Apollo, Director of the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, to discuss his journey from New York to Cheyenne, crypto native to regulator, and how the state of Wyoming continues to innovate. Click here to learn more about the Wyoming Stable Token Commission.

Today’s Guests

Anthony Apollo, Director, Wyoming Stable Token Commission

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

In this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with Olta Andoni, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Enclave Markets.

In this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with Kathy Kraninger, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Solidus Labs and former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

In this Flash TRM Talks, TRM's Ari Redbord welcomes former IRS-CI Agent Chris Janczewski to TRM as Head of Global Investigations.

Minakshi Yerra, VP and Global Head of Compliance at Ripple.

In this Flash TRM Talks Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with former FinCEN Deputy Director Annalou Tirol of O’Melveny & Myers, LLP.

In this Flash TRM Talks Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with ACAM's Joby Carpenter.

In this Flash TRM Talks Ari Redbord sits down for a few minutes with Crypto UK's Ian Taylor

At the end of June 2023, the Financial Action Task Force released its fourth “Targeted Update on Implementation of FATF’s Standards on VAs and VASPs.” The report surveyed 151 jurisdictions to find out what they have done to comply with the FATF Recommendations on virtual assets.

According to FATF, 75% of jurisdictions that have made changes to their regimes have only done so to a partially or non-compliant extent, while only half of countries have brought in changes to accommodate the Travel Rule. To pull out the key learnings from the report, TRM's Ari Redbord and Isabella Chase are joined by Lana Schwartzman, Head of Regulatory and Compliance and Catarina Veloso Senior Associate for regulatory compliance at Notabene for TRM Talks: FATF Travel Rule Implementation.

In this TRM Talks, Ari Redbord is joined by Geoff White, journalist, author and co-host of the BBC's acclaimed "Lazarus Heist" to discuss the first and second seasons of the podcast which focus on North Korea's attack on Sony Pictures and the Bank of Bangladesh as well as the evolution and growing sophistication of North Korea's elite, state sponsored, cybercriminals.

In addition, Mr. White discusses North Korea's pivot to theft in the crypto ecosystem and how law enforcement and regulators are using authorities to mitigate the risk of North Korea cyber attacks. This is an in-depth and fast paced discussion into some of the most interesting and timely issues in the crypto space.

Also, check out our follow up episode with Lazarus Heist co-host Jean Lee.

Today 114 countries across the globe – 95% of the world’s GDP – are working on a central bank digital currency including the United States which continues to study the efficacy and design of a digital dollar. At the same time, we are seeing the growth of decentralized finance, the proliferation of U.S. dollar backed stablecoins, and continued adoption of cryptocurrencies globally despite the “crypto winter.” We are also seeing regulators across the globe – from Dubai to Hong Kong, Europe to Singapore, the UK, Australia, Japan, Brazil and beyond – create legal frameworks for digital assets. Even in the U.S., where the environment has been characterized by enforcement activity, every branch of the U.S. government is now engaged in the discussion of how to regulate the digital assets space. But, what will the digital assets ecosystem look like as it grows and matures? How do we navigate complex questions of security and privacy? Can CBDCs and cryptocurrencies co-exist?

TRM Labs’ Ari Redbord is joined by former Chairman of the CFTC and Digital Dollar Board Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo, Paxos General Counsel Dan Burstein and FalconX Deputy GC Purvi Maniar to discuss the future of finance for our first in-person TRM Talks in collaboration with the Digital Dollar Project.

In this episode Ari sits down with Raj Mukherjee, Executive Director for the Office of Digital Assets Initiative at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to discuss Raj’s journey from industry to government, the role of the IRS in the crypto space, and how IRS is approached drafting the recently published broker regulations.

Today’s Guests

Raj Mukherjee, Executive Director, Office of Digital Asset Initiative, Internal Revenue Service

Host: Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

In the last week of June, after a busy quarter of policy consultations, new legislative packages and ongoing debate, TRM’s Policy team held its latest edition of TRM Talks Policy. Ari Redbord and Isabella Chase were joined by Dr. Chris Brummer, TRM Labs special advisor and professor of Law and Financial Technology at Georgetown University Law Center, to unpack the latest regulatory and policy developments in digital assets around the world. The discussion also shed light on what we can expect over the coming months.

Over the last few years North Korea has been attacking cryptocurrency businesses at alarming speed and scale stealing billions of dollars in crypto to be used for weapons proliferation and other destabilizing activity. As North Korea’s tactics have become more and more sophisticated so has the response with law enforcement, regulators and industry using new tools to harden cyber controls and add friction to the money laundering process. TRM's Ari Redbord is joined for a special TRM Talks by Dr. Jung H. Pak, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Deputy Special Representative for the DPRK at the United States Department of State, Dr. John Park, Director of the Korea Project and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, and former FBI analyst and DPRK expert Nick Carlsen of TRM’s Global Investigations team, to discuss the DPRK threat and how to mitigate it.

TRM’s Ari Redbord sits down with former U.S. Treasury Official Caroline Hill of Circle to discuss recent activity on Capitol Hill, potential stablecoin legislation and the importance of legal clarity.

Ari Redbord sits down with Unchained’s Laura Shin for a TRM Talks to discuss her journey to 500 episodes, her most memorable guests and for a wide ranging discussion of policy, regulation and illicit finance risks. She even turned the tables on Ari a few times. 

In late March, the UK government announced the second Economic Crime Plan, setting out how the government will respond to economic crime between 2023-2026.
It centers around three main outcomes: reducing money laundering and recovering more criminal assets, combating kleptocracy and driving down sanctions evasion and finally, cutting fraud.
For the first time, the Plan includes a dedicated section on combating the ‘criminal abuse of crypto assets’ .
In this webinar, TRM is joined by representatives from the Home Office and HM Treasury to discuss the illicit finance risks faced by the UK's cryptoasset sector, how ECPII plans to counter these and how the private sector can play a vital role in combating the criminal abuse of cryptoassets.

As 114 countries across the globe experiment with a central bank digital currency (CBDC), regulators and policy makers have been discussing and debating fundamental issues of privacy, security, and the impact on existing financial systems.
In the United States, policy makers all the way from the White House to the Federal Reserve, Treasury to Capitol Hill, have continued to discuss the promise and challenges of a potential digital dollar.
The Digital Dollar Project (DDP), created to encourage research and public discussion on the potential advantages and challenges of a U.S. CBDC, is leading that discussion.
TRM Talks is joined by former Chairman of the CFTC and Digital Dollar Board Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo and Digital Dollar Executive Director Jennifer Lassiter to discuss the future of a digital dollar.

TRM's Ari Redbord sits down with US Treasury's Caroline Horres to discuss the much anticipated Risk Assessment For Decentralized Finance and how Treasury views the emerging technology.

As we move to a more decentralized world, policy makers globally are asking the same question: what does regulation look like for DeFi?

In this TRM Talks, we are joined by an all-star panel of builders and innovators, former regulators and law enforcement officials, for a roundtable discussion on the unique regulatory challenges and opportunities in decentralized finance.

In this episode CoinDesk’s managing editor for global policy and regulation Nik De join’s Ari to discuss the regulatory landscape, Congress’ focus on anti-money laundering and national security, and Nik’s non-stop coverage of the Sam Bankman-Fried trial including his crypto-famous courtroom sketches.

Today’s Guests

Nik De, Managing Editor for Global Policy and Regulation, CoinDesk

Host: Ari Rebord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs

The exponential growth of the Internet of Money has created a broad attack surface for threat actors. The same properties that make crypto a force for good — permissionless, programmable, and instantaneous value transfer — are being hijacked by ransomware groups, scammers, and hackers to attack at unprecedented speed and scale.

Hacks have become a part of everyday life in the cryptoverse. In 2022 alone, we have seen nation-state hackers steal hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto, and ransomware groups have been targeting hospitals, critical infrastructure and small businesses. 

This threat calls for a strong response that brings together the public and private sectors to ensure the hardening of cyber defenses and, where this fails, an incident response system to ensure that funds are traced, tracked and recovered.

In this special edition, we will be conducting a tabletop exercise that brings together critical players to depict how to respond to a breach in real-time.

TRM Talks is joined in the incident response war room by Jessica Peck, Prosecutor, U.S. Department of Justice, Alan Cohn, Partner, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Practice, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Jonathan Rajewski, North American Head of Cyber Incident Response, Stroz Friedberg, Chris Hoffmeister, Global Investigations, TRM Labs.

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We blend blockchain data with advanced analytics to help financial institutions and governments fight fraud, money laundering, and financial crime. The TRM Crypto Incident Response team takes a concierge approach to quickly track down stolen funds, leveraging decades of combined experience and market-leading technology. Learn more about these services and reach out for support here: https://www.trmlabs.com/incident-response

Over a year ago, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released guidance on best practices for cryptocurrency businesses as they navigate sanctions in the crypto space.  As part of that guidance, OFAC recommended that companies in the virtual currency industry develop a sanctions compliance program and conduct routine and, if appropriate, ongoing risk assessments to identify potential sanctions issues. This compliance program would include the use of blockchain intelligence and geolocation tools.  

In this session, TRM Talks is joined by sanctions compliance experts with robust experience in building out sanctions compliance programs for crypto businesses to discuss:   

• The ins and outs of how to approach implementing a sanctions compliance program 
• Recent enforcement actions and subsequent key takeaways 
• What are the next big issues in crypto-related sanctions compliance we should consider?  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

Hosting the largest number of internet users per capita in the world, Latin America has seen a booming wave of technological advancement in recent years. In just the last two years, we have seen an explosion of interest in digital assets in the region.

Just last year, El Salvador became the first country in the world to approve a cryptocurrency as an official legal tender, leading to a global discussion on the risks and opportunities associated with the adoption of cryptocurrencies. 

We have also recently seen policymakers in Brazil, the region's largest crypto hub, begin the process of developing a regulatory framework for digital assets by passing a bill addressing key definitions, consumer protection, anti-money laundering, fraud and other key issues.

Simultaneously, other countries in the region, such as Mexico, are working to define a regulatory framework for crypto clearly. On the other hand, some countries, such as Bolivia, have banned the use of cryptocurrencies entirely.  

With so much activity, both positive and negative, happening in the crypto space within Latin America, TRM Talks will be delving into the region’s regulatory landscape alongside guest speakers from Bitso and K2 Integrity.

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

A year ago next month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), building upon their Digital Currency Initiative (DCI),  with a mission to “to tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services and money laundering infrastructure actors."

Over the course of the last year, the NCET, consisting of Criminal Trial Attorneys and Assistant United States Attorneys from across the nation, has worked with law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute crypto-related cases. These cases have ranged from darknet mixing services to insider trading, ICO scams to national security threats.

Beyond investigations and prosecutions, the NCET has been charged with responding to President Biden’s crypto executive order as agencies grapple with how to regulate in the digital assets space.

This month, TRM Talks was joined by United States Digital Currency Counsels, members of both the DCI and NCET, to talk about DOJ’s focus on crypto and what comes next.

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) recently sanctioned cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash, which has been used by North Korean cyber criminals such as state-sponsored Lazarus Group to support cyber activities and launder the stolen proceeds of hacks against cryptocurrency businesses. This designation of Tornado Cash is a watershed moment, not only for the crypto industry but for financial sanctions overall as it targets a widely used mixing service, potentially answering the question of whether or not mixing services at large will be allowed to operate as long as they remain susceptible to illicit actors.  

In the hours following the designation, Ari Redbord sat down with TRM's team of experts to discuss the significance of Tornado Cash as a target of sanctions, how these events fit into wider efforts to combat the use of crypto for money laundering and illicit activity, and what these sanctions mean for crypto businesses and other regulated institutions on-the-ground who need to respond to incorporate these updates into their operations in real-time.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. 

Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about

Over the last few years, we have seen global regulators walk a fine line as they attempt to regulate digital assets without stifling innovation even as the technology moves at the speed of the internet. Nowhere has this been more true than in Singapore, where regulators have sought to launch a framework for digital assets focused on creating a welcoming environment for cryptocurrency businesses while at the same time zealously protecting consumers and mitigating the risks of money laundering and other illicit activity. This has triggered robust advertising and AML regulation.   

Singapore’s Payment Services Act came into effect in January 2020, providing a framework for regulating areas from trading cryptocurrencies to using tokens for payments. Under the law, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issues digital payment token licenses to crypto companies that make it through the application process. And, in April, Singapore extended the licensing requirement to virtual asset service providers in the city-state which only do business overseas.  

Singapore has led the way globally when it comes to crypto regulation. Understanding the regulatory framework in Singapore is critical for businesses looking to engage with the nation, but also for those looking to understand regulatory frameworks for digital assets across the globe.  

This podcast is hosted by TRM Labs, a blockchain analytics company. We work with crypto businesses, financial institutions and government agencies to monitor, detect and investigate fraud and financial crime in crypto. 

Learn more about our mission to build a safer financial system for billions of people here: https://www.trmlabs.com/about