Crypto didn't just flirt with crime in 2024. It became the getaway car. $40.9 billion moved through its rails, not in theory or projections but in real transfers that bankrolled ransomware, drained savings, and slipped across borders faster than regulators could blink.

At the same time, the very same system is wiring payrolls for remote teams, cutting costs for small businesses, and moving aid into war zones where banks refuse to tread. That's the paradox: the rails are neutral, but the traffic is not. The same stablecoin that pays a farmer in Brazil can, in the same hour, launder money for a fraud ring in Moscow. Stablecoins, once sold as the boring cousin of volatile tokens, have become the most important player in both stories. Their stability is exactly why they work so well for both sides of the law. No volatility, no lag, no questions asked. Useful to a business. Indispensable to a criminal.

The contradiction is no longer hypothetical. It is baked into the design. Every improvement in speed, scale, or accessibility makes crypto more powerful for commerce and more dangerous as an engine for crime.

Blockchain Bandits

Crypto-related crimes result in billions in losses each year. That number includes high-profile hacks, phishing attacks, rug pulls, ransomware payouts, and sophisticated DeFi exploits. Major breaches like the Wormhole and Ronin bridge hacks reminded everyone just how fragile decentralized protocols can be.

From ordinary investors to multinational exchanges, no one was truly safe. The notorious Lazarus Group, tied to North Korea, continued its cyber rampage, exploiting bridges and laundering funds through complex mixer networks. Black market vendors and darknet operators flocked to crypto due to anonymity. In seconds, illicit funds could move across borders, leaving little trace.

DeFi, once hailed as the future of finance, also emerged as a playground for scammers and rogue coders. Mixers and privacy coins blurred trails, making it harder to trace the money. So here's the burning question: Can a system designed to be anonymous also be trusted? When speed, decentralization, and secrecy become tools of crime, can crypto still claim the moral high ground?

When Transparency Fights Back

Oddly enough, the very openness of many blockchains is what's helping law enforcement catch up. Public ledgers, once thought to be untraceable, now offer a paper trail for those with the right tools. Blockchain forensic tools have become indispensable in tracking stolen crypto, monitoring suspicious wallets, and investigating criminal activity on-chain.

Firms like Chainalysis, TRM Labs, and Elliptic are building advanced software to flag illicit behavior and trace digital footprints. Thanks to these tools, authorities have recovered millions in stolen crypto, busted global crime rings, and even linked online aliases to real-world identities.

One success story involved the takedown of a darknet drug marketplace, where blockchain forensic tools mapped out wallet activity and led to multiple arrests. In another case, $3.6 billion in stolen bitcoin from a 2016 hack was recovered using data analysis and blockchain tracking, something previously thought impossible.

But the paradox remains. The same transparency that empowers privacy also enables justice. As cybercriminals grow smarter using mixers, cross-chain swaps, and privacy layers, the question becomes: Can law enforcement evolve faster than the criminals they're chasing?

Neutral but Never Innocent

Not all crypto crimes involve obscure tokens. In fact, stablecoins like USDT and USDC have quietly become the favorite currency of both legitimate businesses and bad actors. Their value doesn't swing wildly like Bitcoin or Ether. They're fast, portable, and borderless.

But criminals love them for the same reasons businesses do. Ransomware gangs demand payment in USDT. Fraudsters launder cash through stablecoin conversions. The appeal? You can zip millions across the globe in minutes with...

Broadband operator, SIRO, has today launched a new service aimed at ensuring that buyers can access a fibre broadband service at their new home from the day they move in. Traditionally, buyers of new homes may experience a wait time of several days or even weeks before their broadband service is installed and up and running. This can be extremely frustrating for those moving into a new home who find themselves dependent on reliable connectivity to undertake a wide range of essential activities for themselves and wider family.

Increasingly, new home buyers or their tenants are seeking a functioning broadband service live at their new home from the first day they move in. Activities such as working from home; using connected home devices such as house alarms, doorbell or remote access services like a smart thermostat; and connectivity for mobile, TV or gaming have all expanded this need.

SIRO's new bespoke service allows home buyers to pre-order their broadband service so that it is ready to go before their boxes are even unpacked. New home buyers or their tenants can log onto a dedicated webpage on SIRO's website, find their new development and their individual home and then pre-order a 100% fibre broadband service in advance of moving in.

SIRO's new service for home buyers offers a range of options depending on each individual's circumstances. For those who have already moved in they can go ahead and order broadband services today; those who have bought, have an Eircode and a move-in date they can pre-order to ensure their broadband is ready when they are; or for those who have bought, have an Eircode but no move-in date yet can register and receive a reminder from SIRO when the broadband pre-order service is already to them.

For estate agents and developers, they also now have a dedicated information source that they can direct their home buyers to if the latter have queries on services available to them. Research previously commissioned by SIRO revealed the extent to which broadband is now viewed as an indispensable part of modern living, surpassing other features once regarded as core to a new home. It found that access to broadband was a key consideration for home buyers, ranking higher than even a parking spot or garden for respondents.

A first in the Irish broadband market, SIRO's website now hosts a comprehensive list of new developments across Ireland in which SIRO is rolling out its network. SIRO's new developments webpage currently lists over 300 new developments in every corner of Ireland, with more new developments added on a weekly basis.

SIRO is a wholesale fibre broadband operator. It partners with more than twenty broadband retailers such as Digiweb, Pure Telcom, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone, amongst others, from which home buyers can order a broadband service. It has grown to become the second-largest full-fibre broadband network in Ireland and continues to grow.

Commenting on this new service, SIRO Chief Commercial Officer Ronan Whelan said: "There is so much to consider and deal with when buying and or moving into a new home. It's a stressful time! Getting utilities in place, particularly broadband, are an essential part of making a house a home. SIRO's new service aims to ensure that the process of getting a broadband connection live is seamless.

"Being attuned to customer needs is a key reason for SIRO's success over the last decade. Over that time and even more so since working from home became mainstream, has been the need for home buyers to have a broadband service available as quickly as possible. We've listened to both consumers and developers on this issue and our new service is a response to this overwhelming demand," added Mr. Whelan.

Giving the perspective of home buyers, Managing Director of DNG Duffy, Dundalk, Keith Duffy noted that: "Some homebuyers - particularly first-time buyers and those working from home - like to confirm broadband availability early in the sales process so they can p...

We look at the new book by Barry Cunliffe. See more about Driven by the Monsoons Through the Indian Ocean and the Seas of China here.

Driven by the Monsoons Through the Indian Ocean and the Seas of China, reviewed

This is a lovely book, well illustrated and joining up lots of dynasties and different forces playing out across time, both physically and geopolitically. The maps are nicely done, and there are also some lovely photos of many of the various locations mentions in the book. The author tackles a wide scope of locations, people, weather systems and timeframes. This does mean that there is a lot going on, and to keep up with. It is probably a book that might need several passes and a few reads depending on which aspect you wanted to know more about. For the author this does mean it is an impressive and wide ranging piece of research, that he has distilled down into a succinct and valuable work.

Much like Robert Macfarlane's writing on sea paths, blue highways as such, mainly for the Atlantic seas, Barry Cunliffe delivers a very granular examination of similar sea routes for the Indian Ocean and Chinese waters. This encompasses many, many epochs and the rise and fall of different empires, even if, at times, it is of course much more challenging to document travels undertaken by boat upon water. Cunliffe does a successful job to make this subject accessible, and interesting too. This book could make a lovely gift or something that you might just want to hold onto for yourself too.

More about the book

The Silk Road may be one origin of globalization, but the Indian Ocean is another. Barry Cunliffe examines the beginning of maritime trade using the evidence of archaeology and the tales of great travellers such as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta, and the Chinese Admiral, Zheng He. This story complements that of the land routes, showing how humans have been driven across thousands of years to create and maintain networks whatever the difficulties.

Driven by the Monsoons illuminates maritime connections between the Indian Ocean and its surrounding water routes: the Arabian Gulf and the Red and China Seas. It begins with the movement of humans into South-East Asia and ends about 1600 CE when European companies emerge to takeover. It is tale of exotic goods, material needs, adventure, and desire.

While conditions at sea and the abilities of the maritime communities provided a degree of stability, the direction and intensity of trade and the types of commodities on the move was determined by the fortunes and aspirations of distant empires, those of China in the east and South-West Asia and the Mediterranean in the west. This ever-changing pressure provided the dynamic situation in which society and economies in East Africa, India and South-East Asia flourished. Driven by the Monsoons explores the birth of the modern, connected, world.

More about the author

Barry Cunliffe taught archaeology in the Universities of Bristol and Southampton and was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2008, thereafter becoming Emeritus Professor. He has excavated widely in Britain (Fishbourne, Bath, Danebury, Hengistbury Head, Brading) and in the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Spain, and has been President of the Council for British Archaeology and of the Society of Antiquaries, a Governor of the Museum of London, and a Trustee of the British Museum. He was a Commissioner of English Heritage from 2005 to 2013. His many publications include The Ancient Celts (1997, second edition 2018), Facing the Ocean (2001), The Druids: A Very Short Introduction (2010), Britain Begins (2012), By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean (2015), The Scythians (2019), and Facing the Sea of Sand (2023), all published by Oxford University Press. He received a knighthood in 2006.

See more reviews here.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of ...

We speak to Tim Christophersen author of 'Generation Restoration' and is an advocate for ecosystem restoration

Tim Christophersen interviewed

Who are we talking to, and is it a logical journey to what you do now?

I grew up in a small village surrounded by forests, and there was not much else to do than spend time in nature. My grandfather was a forest ranger who took me out for long walks. I went mushroom hunting, fishing, and camping from an early age. That's probably why I spent my entire career, now over 25 years, trying to save nature. During that time, I have addressed the issue from different angles: first working for a research institute in Denmark, then for the European Commission, and then for an NGO, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. After that, I spent 15 years working for the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP, including setting up the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.

In 2022, I joined Salesforce as VP of Climate Action to provide leadership on sustainability within the private sector. Salesforce has a unique role within the corporate sector, as a role model and also as a trusted advisor to most of the world's largest companies. In that role, my team and I have supported and collaborated with hundreds of companies on their climate and nature journey, building the political will to take action for a more abundant future.

Tell us about your new book, Generation Restoration. What is the concept you are outlining?

In the book, I track the rapid decline of biodiversity - the life support system of Planet Earth - over the past centuries, and even more rapidly over the past decades. We have lost nature to such a degree now that we live in a 'ten percent world' compared to our former natural wealth. We are in an existential relationship crisis with nature. 'Generation Restoration' explores how we can instead turn the Planet into a haven of diversity and natural abundance for everyone. It is possible, within one generation, if we all work better together. And if we learn some basic ecological literacy. We are basically flying blind when it comes to understanding the natural world.

The book calls for a century of ecology, which will reconcile humans and nature through a better understanding, including the recognition that humans are part of nature. Making peace with nature in the 21st century is a logical progression from the 20th century, which focused on chemistry and physics and has brought us amazing progress, but also enormous ecological challenges. We now have to solve them through a deeper 'knowledge of our common home', which is what the world ecology means.

How probable is it that we can achieve this?

It is not only feasible - it is already happening. In the book, I show examples from around the world where local communities, governments, and companies are starting to restore nature at an unprecedented scale. Accion Andina, for instance, is a movement to restore the watersheds of the high Andes across most of South America. Most of the continent relies on mountain forest ecosystems for drinking water and irrigation, and restoring the Andean forests from less than ten percent of their former range to their original abundance will ensure water security. It is not only feasible - we basically don't have any other choice but to make peace with nature and restore ecosystems on a large scale.

Accion Andina only started six years ago, and now covers 400 sites in five countries where over 30,000 volunteers have planted over ten million native trees. If governments would adequately support such country- and continent-wide efforts, we could easily achieve this level of restoration at a global scale. Nature is critical infrastructure for every human society, and we have to start treating ecosystem restoration as a priority, with the needed levels of large-scale planning and investment. We are, in fact, the first generation in history that has all the technology, scientific knowledg...

A groundbreaking study using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has unveiled a bold new theory that black holes could be converting matter into dark energy, the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the universe.

Photo details, The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation's Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory - a program of NSF NOIRLab - in Arizona. Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. Tafreshi (Used under a CC BY 4.0 license)

DESI is an international experiment that brings together more than 900 researchers from over 70 institutions. The project is led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the instrument was constructed and is operated with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.

What can Black Holes tell us about dark energy?

Researchers at Durham University and collaborators have combined DESI's data with observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to construct a new way of understanding the components of our universe.

In the new model, stars collapsing into black holes trigger a process that gradually transforms matter into dark energy. This transformation is linked to the cosmic star formation rate, allowing the model to naturally evolve over time and match both early- and late-universe observations.

The new study follows recent findings by DESI which suggest that dark energy's influence on the universe - long believed to be constant in time - is actually changing. It proposes that black holes may be the engines behind the universe's mysterious dark energy - while also shedding light on the elusive mass of fundamental particles known as neutrinos.

The new findings stem from an isolated mountain in southern Arizona called Iolkam Du'ag. Here, the Tohono O'odham Nation stewards Kitt Peak National Observatory, where the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument peers deep into the universe's past using 5,000 robotic eyes - each focused on a different galaxy, switching to new ones every 15 minutes.

A major focus of the study is the mass of fundamental particles called neutrinos, the second-most abundant particle in the universe. Scientists know these particles have masses that are greater than zero and so contribute to the amount of matter in the universe, but their exact values have yet to be measured.

When DESI's data are interpreted with the current best model of the universe (in which the dark energy is constant), the matter budget is too small and leaves no room for the neutrinos. This mismatch suggests that the mass of neutrinos is negative, contradicting what scientists already know about neutrinos.

Scientists from Durham University, led by Dr Willem Elbers, proposed in a paper last year that the evolution of dark energy could be responsible for the mismatch in the neutrino masses. This new study presents a concrete model that brings the neutrino mass back into a positive value, in agreement with known physics.

These new findings, led by the University of Michigan and published in the Physical Review Letters, could resolve several long-standing puzzles in cosmology and reshape our understanding of the universe's evolution.

Dr Willem Elbers, from Durham's Department of Physics, co-chair of DESI's Cosmological Parameter Estimation group, and contributor to the research, said: "The conversion of matter into dark energy is an intriguing mechanism. It could explain a number of puzzling findings in cosmology.

"With more data and study, we may yet rule out this specific model or develop it further into a mature theory of the cosmos."

Durham is a key partner in the DESI project, having designed and built the telescope instrument's fibre-optic system which allows light from 5,000 objects at a time, such as distant galaxies, quasars and stars, to be collected simultaneously with great precision.

To date, DESI has already mapped over 40 million galaxies. Durham researchers were also in...

Klearcom, a leading provider of global contact centre testing solutions, has announced that it has fuelled global momentum for United World Telecom through real-time number testing and assurance, significantly enhancing the company's ability to deliver a consistent and high-quality service.

Founded in 1996, United World Telecom serves over 8,000 business clients with VoIP, IVR, and global call forwarding services. As its international customer base grew, the company needed to maintain 24-hour support across multiple time zones, validating the performance of local and toll-free numbers in regions around the world and ensuring the highest-quality customer service.

Traditional, manual testing methods often proved time-intensive and were susceptible to human error, especially when applied across different time zones.

Through Klearcom's AI-powered, automated testing platform, United World Telecom has streamlined its processes with on-demand testing across more than 100 countries and real-time reporting capabilities across call quality, network performance and IVR functionality.

This partnership has enabled United World Telecom to quickly and reliably verify the functionality of toll-free numbers in real-time. As a result, the company benefits from greater reliability, real-time assurance, and faster issue detection, helping it to deliver a more consistent and enhanced customer experience to its growing client base.

Klearcom continues to solidify its market position, which is underscored by its Stevie Award wins earlier this year - including Best Use of Technology in Customer Service for the Telecommunications Industry, Best IVR or Web Service Solution, and Best Contact Centre Solution. It also recently received a 2025 Voice AI Technology Excellence Award from CUSTOMER Magazine for its innovation and commitment to improving the customer experience.

Mark Rohan, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Klearcom said: "United World Telecom is a global leader that relies on having complete visibility into its toll-free numbers across every region it serves. Klearcom's global testing coverage ensures real-time insights and consistent performance, no matter the market. By combining automation with deep geographic reach, we're helping United World Telecom operate with greater agility, scale with confidence, and deliver a world-class customer experience at a global level."

Alain Rodriguez, Senior Technical Support Manager, United World Telecom said: "Klearcom's automated testing solution has been a real game-changer for us. It allows us to assess toll-free numbers in an instant, ensuring our clients get the support they need and further elevating the customer experience."

See more stories here.

By David Stephen who considers AGI in this article.

All intelligence tests for humans are niche measures. There is no general intelligence test for all the possible ways that humans are intelligent. There are several things that humans can adapt intelligence to, but most of the measures for intelligence are for things that training had preceded.

Even with training, there is no guarantee that an individual would be great at the thing. Also, what it means, in human societies, to be intelligent are categorized with things that have productive value.

There are possibilities to be intelligent in things that are not needed [or valued] in some societies - or in some epochs. This does not mean that the individual lacks intelligence, but the adaptation that would have made the individual economically effective, in that place or time, is lacking.

Humans, across history, have never been rated for general intelligence. It is being great at what matters that often count. To measure intelligence, it is to know what matters, in a place and at a time. Other features could be supportive [or be fun], but it is mostly what counts that admits.

AGI

What to track is the capability of AI to take the place of an intelligent person, in a country, at this time, for several economic roles. AI may not be independent yet, or thorough enough - so to speak, but can it make an intelligent person [in a field] unnecessary, even with its flaws?

Fixation on AI flaws is misunderstanding the categorizations for intelligence in a society. Also, the question of human intelligence is the question of the brain. So, the standard would be to show how the brain processes intelligence to develop a parallel that can be used to access the reach of AI.

What is the certainty that [niche] artificial intelligence has not already surpassed [niche but important] human Intelligence? What are everyday uses for various aspects of [important] human intelligence that AI cannot fill? Some people say AI lacks understanding, creativity, innovation and so on, but aren't those other measures of intelligence that may be assumed to be included so far outputs meet expectations?

In evaluating [important] human intelligence, conclusion is sometimes reached when it is ascertained that what is known is enough for work. No one is seeking general [or totalized] intelligence to hire for a role, so to speak. Job openings have requirements, if an individual satisfies it, chances mount.

The technology industry is racing at artificial general intelligence [AGI] or artificial superintelligence [ASI]. The expectation is to match or surpass human intelligence. But currently, if AI is trained on anything to be digitally deployed, AI may excel at it. And digital is the ascendant social and productivity tool. AI is already of might in that sphere. The mission of AGI or ASI is a facade to assume that human intelligence is not already out-competed.

Human Intelligence Research Lab

The only project that matters now, for parity with the takeoff of AI is human intelligence. It is not even human-centered artificial intelligence [HCAI], AI Safety, AI Alignment, or whatever else is on the menu for more AI.

Human Intelligence is the use of human memory. What is memory, and how is it used? These are questions for conceptual brain science. It is possible to extricate electrical and chemical signals of neurons as the basis for memory and intelligence, then build a model of it, for learning, problem-solving, creativity, innovation and so forth.

The first Human Intelligence Research Lab, for displays and explanations, using the [electrical and chemical] signals of neurons, would become an aspect of readiness as artificial intelligence conquers grounds.

There is a recent [August 13, 2025] report by MIT Technology Review Insights, The road to artificial general intelligence, stating that, "Artificial intelligence models that can discover drugs and write code still fail at puzzles a lay person can master in minutes. This ph...

Asteroid Bennu - the target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, led by the University of Arizona - is a mixture of materials from throughout, and even beyond, our solar system. Over the past few billion years, its unique and varied contents have been transformed by interactions with water and the harsh space environment.

These details come from a trio of newly published papers based on analysis of Bennu samples delivered to Earth by OSIRIS-REx in 2023. The OSIRIS-REx sample analysis campaign is coordinated by the U of A Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and involves scientists from around the world. LPL researchers contributed to all three studies and led two of them.

Diverse origins for Asteroid Bennu

"This is work you just can't do with telescopes," said Jessica Barnes, associate professor at the U of A Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and co-lead author on one of the publications. "It's super exciting that we're finally able to say these things about an asteroid that we've been dreaming of going to for so long and eventually brought back samples from."

Bennu is made of fragments from a larger "parent" asteroid that broke up after it collided with another asteroid, likely in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The parent asteroid consisted of material with diverse origins - near the sun, far from the sun, and from other stars - that coalesced more than 4 billion years ago as our solar system was forming. These findings are the subject of the first paper, published in Nature Astronomy and jointly led by Barnes and Ann Nguyen with the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"Bennu's parent asteroid may have formed in the outer parts of the solar system, possibly beyond the giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn," Barnes said. "We think this parent body was struck by an incoming asteroid and smashed apart. Then the fragments re-assembled and this might have repeated several times."

By looking at the samples returned by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, Barnes and her colleagues were able to get the most comprehensive snapshot of its history to date. Among the findings was an abundance of stardust, material that existed before our solar system formed, Barnes said. The discovery of these most ancient materials was made possible, in part, by the NanoSIMS instrument at the U of A Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis, which can reveal a sample's isotopes - variants of chemical elements - at nanometer scales. The tiny grains of stardust are identifiable by their unusual isotopic makeup compared to materials formed in the solar system.

"Those are pieces of stardust from other stars that are long dead, and these pieces were incorporated into the cloud of gas and dust from which our solar system formed," Barnes said. "In addition, we found organic material that's highly anomalous in their isotopes and that was probably formed in interstellar space, and we have solids that formed closer to the sun, and for the first time, we show that all these materials are present in Bennu."

The chemical and isotopic similarities between samples from Bennu and a similar asteroid, Ryugu, which was sampled by the Japanese Hayabusa 2 mission in 2019, and the most chemically primitive meteorites found on Earth suggest their parent asteroids may have formed in a shared region of the early solar system. Yet the differences researchers are observing in the Bennu samples may indicate that the starting materials in this region changed over time or were not as well-mixed as some scientists have thought.

The analyses show that some of the materials in the parent asteroid survived various chemical processes involving heat and water and even the energetic collision that resulted in the formation of Bennu. Nevertheless, most of the materials were transformed by hydrothermal processes, as reported in the second paper, published in Nature Geoscience. In fact, that study found,...

International holding PIN-UP Global is scaling up to become the RedCore business group. This move will enable the holding, which specialises in developing technological solutions for the iGaming industry, to realise its ambitious plans for expansion into new markets.

RedCore Business Group emerges

RedCore is an international business group that creates technological solutions for digital markets. Over the years, the company has expanded beyond iGaming and transformed into a diversified business group that operates far outside the confines of a single industry. RedCore has a well-structured management model and a strategic focus on growth. Our products and services cover fintech, marketing, e-commerce, customer service, communications and regulatory technologies. The business group develops applied solutions that help businesses scale, optimize processes, reduce costs, and meet the demands of highly regulated markets.

"Throughout our growth, it became clear that our potential goes far beyond a single industry. Currently, we bring together expertise and technology in various areas of digital business. iGaming remains a part of our experience - but now it's just one of the areas where we innovate and drive progress," - Marina Ilina, CEO and founder of the business group commented.

RedCore will be presented for the first time at the SBC Summit to be held on 16 to 18 September 2025 in Lisbon, at stand D185, where the business group will present its portfolio of B2B products and solutions.

RedCore retains the core operating principles that made PIN-UP Global a market leader. The business group remains true to its philosophy of leadership and constant progress, deep expertise in every area of activity, synergy and teamwork. Its focus on results and principles of open, honest communication with partners and employees remain unchanged.

The restructuring to RedCore opens new horizons of cooperation for existing and potential partners. The business group is ready to offer comprehensive technological solutions that go beyond traditional industry boundaries.

Check out more breaking stories here.

Deloitte Ireland is inviting the country's fastest-growing and most innovative technology companies to apply to be part of the prestigious Deloitte Fast 50 awards. The programme, which celebrates home-grown entrepreneurship, ranks the 50 fastest growing indigenous technology companies based on revenue growth over the last four years.

The list features both private and publicly listed technology companies that have demonstrated creative strategies, sound management practices and marketplace vision, driving them to achieve the status of high-growth leaders.

"The dynamic shifts in the macroeconomic landscape since the 2024 awards have intensified businesses' focus on resilience and upholding the highest standards of quality across their organisations," explains Jams Toomey, partner and Fast 50 programme lead at Deloitte.

"The changes in our current trading environment have shifted our focus here at home in Ireland. More than ever, we realise we need to invest and support indigenous businesses to insulate Ireland and keep us an innovative and exciting place to work and live. It's why I'm passionate about the Deloitte Fast 50 awards, because every year, for 26 years, we celebrate the 50 fastest-growing tech companies on the island of Ireland. Each business is a real-life example of the incredible indigenous companies that are being talked about so much.

"For any company considering applying, previous ranking companies have included unicorns Wayflyer and Tines," continues Toomey. "That shows the calibre of our winners. The rankings are trusted, respected and purely quantitative based, solely looking at growth, so it's an objective ranking. We hear from previous participants how this has helped them when looking for external investment. In this environment, when investors are being sharper and smarter with their money, this is invaluable. I look forward to seeing which companies apply and seeing many of them at our awards ceremony in November."

This year's awards programme will include several award categories that companies can enter in addition to the overall ranking. The 2024 winners of these awards include Catagen for the Impact Award in association with Meta.

Growing New Technology Award in association with Google: This award recognises a company that has created or introduced a new or innovative product or service to international markets, which helped grow their business over the last four years.

Impact Award in association with Meta: This award recognises a company that has made a significant impact within the current year.

Women in Technology Advocate Award in association with NetSuite: This award will be presented to an individual who has demonstrated through their actions that they are an advocate for increasing participation by, and promotion of, women in the technology sector.

Scale Up Award in association with Scale Ireland: This award recognises a company that has demonstrated an impressive ability to scale up/expand overseas over the last four years.

Financial Services Innovation Award in association with Financial Services Ireland: This award recognises a company with an innovative product or service that is having a disruptive impact within the financial services industry.

The Rising Star award in association with Enterprise Ireland: This award will recognise a company that has demonstrated a promising growth trajectory and the potential for inclusion in the Fast 50 rankings in years to come. Companies being considered for this award must have operating revenues accounting for a minimum of 2 years and less than 4 years.

2024 Deloitte Fast 50 Rankings

11 of the 50 ranked companies in 2024's awards were first-time winners.

Wayflyer, a company that provides financing to consumer brands and became a unicorn in 2022, ranked as the fastest-growing technology company. Fibrus, Tines, Buymedia and Catagen all ranked in the top five.

Eoin Hinchy, founder and CEO, of Tines, an intelligent workflows platform, said:

"After wo...