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.

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 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.