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

In 2022, we saw global regulators and policy makers begin to craft comprehensive frameworks for digital assets.

Over the last year, we have seen the tremendous growth of bridges which connect blockchains and allow users to transfer value from one chain to another. Bridges make for quick and often pseduo-anonymous transactions,  empowering the interconnected blockchain ecosystem to grow and thrive. 

However, bridges - which often store a lot of value - have also become attractive targets for hackers, cybercriminals and nation state actors like North Korea who see an opportunity to steal hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto-assets at the speed of the internet. 

In this session, TRM's Jennifer Vander Veer, a former F.B.I. Agent specializing in crypto investigations, will be conducting an in-depth discussion of bridges, DeFi exploits, and tracing across blockchains as bad actors develop new techniques to launder funds. 

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 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:   

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 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

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

From NFT rug pulls to programmatic money laundering of hacked funds by nation-state actors like North Korea, threat actors are becoming more and more sophisticated - but so are the investigators and the tools they are using.   

Check out TRM Talks Investigations for a discussion about the latest cases, trends and typologies, with former FBI investigators Jennifer Vander Veer, Taylor Windemuth and Lisa Wolk; former United States Secret Service Agent Rita Martin, and threat intelligence expert Monika Laird.  

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