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Project Overview
TRM is a provider of crypto compliance and risk management solutions that helps financial institutions, cryptocurrency businesses, and public agencies detect, investigate, and manage crypto-related fraud and financial crime. Its risk management platform includes solutions for cryptocurrency anti-money laundering (AML), transaction monitoring and wallet screening, entity risk scoring including Know-Your-VASP, and transaction tracing for investigations. These tools enable a rapidly growing number of organizations around the world to safely embrace cryptocurrency-related transactions, products, and partnerships.
TRM Labs valuation doubles to $2 billion, completes Series C funding round
According to Cointelegraph, blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs saw its valuation double to $2 billion following an upsized Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital. The company stated that its annual recurring revenue has quadrupled over the past three years.
TRM Labs Valuation Doubles to $2 Billion, Launches New AI Crime Detection Platform
According to Fortune, blockchain forensics startup TRM Labs has announced a new round of follow-on funding from existing investors, with the amount undisclosed. Driven by the rapid growth of its AI business, the company’s valuation has doubled to $2 billion, up from $1 billion six months ago. CEO Esteban Castano stated that the company expects to soon achieve the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone and will officially launch a new AI-powered crime investigation platform designed for law enforcement agencies in November, focusing on AI-driven criminal scenarios such as financial fraud, deepfakes, and child sexual exploitation. Castano emphasized that AI serves as the company's second growth engine rather than a business pivot, with blockchain intelligence remaining the core business pillar. The company currently employs approximately 500 people and maintains offices in London, Singapore, and Washington, D.C.
T3 Financial Crime Unit Freezes Over $450 Million in Illicit Crypto Assets
According to The Block, the T3 Financial Crime Unit (T3 FCU), jointly established by Tether, TRON, and TRM Labs, announced that since its founding in 2024, it has frozen over $450 million worth of illicit crypto assets globally. In 2025, the unit’s interception of illicit proceeds increased by 43.9% year-on-year, covering 23 jurisdictions including the United States, Spain, and Germany, and has been recognized by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as “a critical resource for global law enforcement agencies.” The T3 FCU has participated in investigations across multiple crime categories, including exchange hacks, North Korea–related activities, terrorist financing, and violent crimes, and assisted Brazil’s Federal Police in freezing over $5.989 billion in assets—including 4.3 million USDT.
TRM Labs Valuation Doubles to $2 Billion, Launches New AI Crime Detection Platform
According to Fortune, blockchain forensics startup TRM Labs has announced a new round of follow-on funding from existing investors, with the amount undisclosed. Driven by the rapid growth of its AI business, the company’s valuation has doubled to $2 billion, up from $1 billion six months ago. CEO Esteban Castano stated that the company expects to soon achieve the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone and will officially launch a new AI-powered crime investigation platform designed for law enforcement agencies in November, focusing on AI-driven criminal scenarios such as financial fraud, deepfakes, and child sexual exploitation. Castano emphasized that AI serves as the company's second growth engine rather than a business pivot, with blockchain intelligence remaining the core business pillar. The company currently employs approximately 500 people and maintains offices in London, Singapore, and Washington, D.C.
Arbitrum Activates ArbOS 61 Elara Upgrade, Introducing Optional Compliance Filtering and Priority Fee Support for Dedicated Chains
According to The Defiant, Arbitrum officially activated the ArbOS 61 Elara upgrade on August 20, which was approved for deployment via an ArbitrumDAO governance vote. The core features of this upgrade include: introducing an optional protocol-level transaction filtering mechanism for Dedicated Chains, allowing chain owners to independently select external compliance service providers such as TRM Labs and Chainalysis to configure restricted address rules; the filter is disabled by default and does not affect existing Arbitrum One users; adding Priority Fee support, also disabled by default, with its activation on Arbitrum One still requiring a separate DAO constitutional vote; introducing the BaseFeeManager contract, which authorizes Offchain Labs to adjust the L2 minimum Gas fee within a DAO-approved range of 0.01 to 0.10 gwei over a two-year authorization period; additionally, the maximum code size limit for Stylus contracts has been increased from 24 KB to 96 KB, though this does not apply to Solidity contracts.
Chainalysis Files Lawsuit Over ICE Awarding $94.6 Million Contract to TRM Labs
Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) award of an approximately $94.6 million blockchain forensics software and support services contract to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract term is from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, for investigations related to the Homeland Security Special Operations Group.
Chainalysis sues U.S. government over ICE's $94.6 million contract awarded to TRM Labs
blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, opposing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) decision to award a contract worth approximately $94.6 million to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract, covering the period from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, involves blockchain forensics software and support services for Homeland Security task forces investigating fraud, cybercrime, and sextortion cases. Chainalysis argues that ICE's decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. TRM Labs joined the case as an intervenor-defendant on July 28, defending the contract alongside the U.S. government. The court has allowed Chainalysis to temporarily seal its complaint, with oral arguments scheduled for September 2. ICE stated that after approximately six days of market research, it determined that none of the eight responding companies could meet the requirements. (Decrypt)
MiCA implementation: only about 20% of European crypto service providers authorized, 281 approved
Odaily News According to a report by blockchain compliance analysis firm TRM Labs, following the full implementation of the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), only 281 of the original 1,343 crypto asset service providers applied for and received operating authorization, accounting for roughly one-fifth. Among the more than 1,800 crypto organizations previously registered in Poland, none obtained MiCA authorization; in Lithuania, only 8 of more than 400 received approval. Germany's regulator BaFin authorized 55 entities, while French and Dutch regulators each licensed 29. TRM Labs' assessments show that among firms that failed to obtain authorization and exited the market, 12% were rated as high-risk or severe-risk, compared to 2% among authorized firms. The former sent $5 billion to sanctioned counterparties, while the latter sent $1.7 billion. The report notes that unauthorized firms' sanctions exposure is approximately four times that of authorized firms. MiCA has also raised concerns about restricted access to stablecoins in Europe, and the EU is planning a comprehensive framework revision to address stablecoin issues and bring tokenized assets under regulatory scope. (Bitcoin.com News)
Singapore police and cryptocurrency exchanges have prevented over 145 potential scam victims from losing more than $4.2 million
The Singapore Police Force's Anti-Scam Centre and Cybercrime Department, in a six-week joint anti-scam operation from April 16 to May 31, 2026, collaborated with Coinbase, Coinhako, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX, StraitsX, and Upbit. Using blockchain analysis tools from Chainalysis and TRM Labs, they identified potential scam victims and conducted over 145 targeted interventions via phone and in-person visits, preventing potential losses exceeding $4.2 million. Coinbase Singapore stated in a post on X on July 10 that it worked with the Singapore police to prevent over 145 individuals from losing a combined total of more than $4.2 million due to scams. The Singapore Police Force stated that it will continue to work with cryptocurrency exchanges and other private sector entities to combat cybercrime. (Bitcoin.com News).
2026 has seen 32 price manipulation attacks, impacting a nearly $50 billion crypto lending market
Odaily News: Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reports that 32 price manipulation attacks have been recorded in 2026, surpassing the total of any previous full year; 2025 saw 12 incidents throughout the year. Such attacks account for roughly one-eighth of hacker incidents, up from one-seventeenth in 2022.Attackers typically first inflate the price of low-liquidity tokens, then use them as collateral to borrow other assets from lending protocols. Subsequently, they cause the collateral price to plummet and abandon the collateral, potentially leading to bad debt in the lending pools.According to DeFiLlama data, the total value locked in crypto-collateralized lending protocols has grown by approximately 56% over the past two years, approaching $50 billion, with active loan volume nearing $29 billion. The sector currently hosts over 570 lending protocols.Recently, Tectonic suffered losses exceeding $70 million after the TONIC price was artificially inflated, with the attacker ultimately extracting approximately $6 million in assets after the Cronos chain was rolled back; Moonwell also previously incurred losses of around $8.7 million due to manipulation of the MAMO oracle price. (Bitcoin.com News)
1:1 compensation for legitimate holders prior to the vulnerability incident; The Sandbox will reimburse cross-chain SAND using treasury funds
Odaily News, The Sandbox has released a post-mortem report on the August 22 vulnerability incident. The report shows that attackers exploited vulnerabilities in contracts related to cross-chain configurations on Base and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), stealing 14,742,341.84 SAND from the Ethereum treasury, accounting for approximately 0.5% of the maximum supply, with an estimated economic impact of approximately $1.4968 million, of which about $987,000 was actually retained by the attackers. The Ethereum mainnet and Polygon network were not affected. Until further notice, please do not purchase or send SAND on Base or BNB Smart Chain. Contracts deployed on Base and BNB Smart Chain have been permanently deactivated and will not be reopened. The Sandbox stated that the team has reported the attacker's wallet address to blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis, and has communicated directly with relevant exchanges. The Sandbox also announced a compensation plan, which will compensate wallets that legitimately held cross-chain SAND on Base or BSC prior to the incident at a 1:1 ratio in Ethereum SAND. Compensation funds will come from The Sandbox treasury, with no new tokens issued. The claim process will open within the next two weeks and remain open for two weeks.
TRM Labs: AI Applications in Crypto Crime Grew by 40% Over the Past Year
According to The Block, TRM Labs' latest report shows that AI applications in cryptocurrency crime grew by 40% year-over-year over the past year, primarily driven by fraud activities. In the first half of 2026, digital asset hacking incidents reached 201, a new record high, with approximately 75% of the losses concentrated in just 4% of the incidents. North Korean-linked activities caused approximately $600 million in losses, accounting for 61% of the total losses in the first half of the year. TRM Labs noted that AI has not created new types of crime, but has significantly lowered the barrier to criminal activity and expanded the scale of attacks.
Coldcard hack losses estimated at 1,816 BTC, CryptoQuant confirms 1,432
Odaily News: Hardware wallet Coldcard has suffered a hack, with no confirmed total loss amount yet. Blockchain analytics platform CryptoQuant has confirmed losses of 1,432 BTC, while Galaxy Research places a high-confidence minimum estimate at 1,730 BTC. Other analyses suggest the scale of losses could be even higher. Research firm Galaxy Research stated that its earlier estimate of 1,816 BTC represents a potential figure, not a confirmed total. As of Tuesday, the firm's confirmed high-confidence minimum loss stands at 1,730 BTC, with over 450 BTC directly confirmed based on victim reports. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs estimates that the attacker moved approximately 1,816 BTC from more than 5,200 addresses in four phases. CryptoQuant stated that its confirmed figures only include addresses publicly disclosed by victims and verified through on-chain patterns, meaning the tally could rise as more victims come forward with information. (Cointelegraph)
Thailand Issues Arrest Warrant for Chinese Businessman Allegedly Involved in "Pig Butchering" Scam and Illegal Crypto Mining Money Laundering Worth Billions of Dollars
The Thai government has officially issued an arrest warrant for Chinese businessman Wang Yicheng, accusing him of colluding with transnational criminal syndicates to launder billions of dollars through illegal cryptocurrency "mining" activities on behalf of cross-border internet fraud and online gambling syndicates. Reuters, citing an investigation by blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs, reported that Wang Yicheng's cryptocurrency wallet received at least $9.1 million (approximately HKD 71.35 million) between 2021 and 2022, with funds linked to "pig butchering" scams.Thailand's Special Investigation Department stated in a statement that U.S. law enforcement agencies have confirmed Wang Yicheng's involvement in a digital asset fraud case. The U.S. side had previously traced the flow of stolen funds from a victim in Massachusetts to an account registered under Wang Yicheng's name and seized approximately $500,000 worth of cryptocurrency. (Lianhe Zaobao)
Bloomberg: AI threats are increasing, with over half of blockchain attacks in 2025 theoretically automatable by AI
in April 2026, two major DeFi attacks on Drift Protocol and Kelp DAO resulted in losses of nearly $600 million, triggering approximately $9 billion in capital outflows from protocols like Aave. TRM Labs investigator Nick Carlsen stated that a hacker group suspected to be linked to North Korea has allegedly used AI to assist in target selection and attack path design. Failsafe CEO Aneirin Flynn said that AI has compressed the time for discovering blockchain vulnerabilities from months to days or even hours. The report noted that Anthropic has not fully opened its AI model Mythos due to cybersecurity risks, claiming the model has the capability to discover large-scale zero-day vulnerabilities. Its research indicates that over half of blockchain attacks in 2025 could theoretically be completed autonomously by AI. (Bloomberg)
TRM Labs Valuation Doubles to $2 Billion, Launches New AI Crime Detection Platform
According to Fortune, blockchain forensics startup TRM Labs has announced a new round of follow-on funding from existing investors, with the amount undisclosed. Driven by the rapid growth of its AI business, the company’s valuation has doubled to $2 billion, up from $1 billion six months ago. CEO Esteban Castano stated that the company expects to soon achieve the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone and will officially launch a new AI-powered crime investigation platform designed for law enforcement agencies in November, focusing on AI-driven criminal scenarios such as financial fraud, deepfakes, and child sexual exploitation. Castano emphasized that AI serves as the company's second growth engine rather than a business pivot, with blockchain intelligence remaining the core business pillar. The company currently employs approximately 500 people and maintains offices in London, Singapore, and Washington, D.C.
1:1 compensation for legitimate holders prior to the vulnerability incident; The Sandbox will reimburse cross-chain SAND using treasury funds
Odaily News, The Sandbox has released a post-mortem report on the August 22 vulnerability incident. The report shows that attackers exploited vulnerabilities in contracts related to cross-chain configurations on Base and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), stealing 14,742,341.84 SAND from the Ethereum treasury, accounting for approximately 0.5% of the maximum supply, with an estimated economic impact of approximately $1.4968 million, of which about $987,000 was actually retained by the attackers. The Ethereum mainnet and Polygon network were not affected. Until further notice, please do not purchase or send SAND on Base or BNB Smart Chain. Contracts deployed on Base and BNB Smart Chain have been permanently deactivated and will not be reopened. The Sandbox stated that the team has reported the attacker's wallet address to blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis, and has communicated directly with relevant exchanges. The Sandbox also announced a compensation plan, which will compensate wallets that legitimately held cross-chain SAND on Base or BSC prior to the incident at a 1:1 ratio in Ethereum SAND. Compensation funds will come from The Sandbox treasury, with no new tokens issued. The claim process will open within the next two weeks and remain open for two weeks.
Arbitrum Activates ArbOS 61 Elara Upgrade, Introducing Optional Compliance Filtering and Priority Fee Support for Dedicated Chains
According to The Defiant, Arbitrum officially activated the ArbOS 61 Elara upgrade on August 20, which was approved for deployment via an ArbitrumDAO governance vote. The core features of this upgrade include: introducing an optional protocol-level transaction filtering mechanism for Dedicated Chains, allowing chain owners to independently select external compliance service providers such as TRM Labs and Chainalysis to configure restricted address rules; the filter is disabled by default and does not affect existing Arbitrum One users; adding Priority Fee support, also disabled by default, with its activation on Arbitrum One still requiring a separate DAO constitutional vote; introducing the BaseFeeManager contract, which authorizes Offchain Labs to adjust the L2 minimum Gas fee within a DAO-approved range of 0.01 to 0.10 gwei over a two-year authorization period; additionally, the maximum code size limit for Stylus contracts has been increased from 24 KB to 96 KB, though this does not apply to Solidity contracts.
Chainalysis Files Lawsuit Over ICE Awarding $94.6 Million Contract to TRM Labs
Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) award of an approximately $94.6 million blockchain forensics software and support services contract to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract term is from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, for investigations related to the Homeland Security Special Operations Group.
Chainalysis sues U.S. government over ICE's $94.6 million contract awarded to TRM Labs
blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a bid protest with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on July 27, opposing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) decision to award a contract worth approximately $94.6 million to competitor TRM Labs on a sole-source basis. The contract, covering the period from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, involves blockchain forensics software and support services for Homeland Security task forces investigating fraud, cybercrime, and sextortion cases. Chainalysis argues that ICE's decision was arbitrary and unreasonable. TRM Labs joined the case as an intervenor-defendant on July 28, defending the contract alongside the U.S. government. The court has allowed Chainalysis to temporarily seal its complaint, with oral arguments scheduled for September 2. ICE stated that after approximately six days of market research, it determined that none of the eight responding companies could meet the requirements. (Decrypt)
TRM Labs: Q1 forecasted market transaction volume reached $3.66 billion, surpassing on-chain gambling’s $1.4 billion for the first time
According to CoinTelegraph, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs released a report forecasting that the on-chain prediction market’s transaction volume for Q1 2026 will reach $3.66 billion—surpassing on-chain gambling’s $1.4 billion for the first time. On-chain gambling achieved a total annual transaction volume of $5.1 billion in 2025, setting a new quarterly record of $1.5 billion in Q4 2025. TRM Labs noted that despite the broader crypto market correction, transaction volumes in both sectors showed no significant decline—largely sustained by the continued activity of loyal user bases. Regarding user composition, “high rollers” accounted for only 6.3% of individual wallets yet generated 91.8% of total transaction volume. Meanwhile, the monthly transaction volume of average bettors grew from $17 million in January 2022 to $188 million in March 2026; the transaction volume of daily gamblers increased twelvefold over the same period, indicating substantial expansion of incremental user groups. From a risk perspective, TRM Labs highlighted differing financial crime risks across the two platform types: gambling platforms face higher money laundering risks, whereas prediction markets are more likely to draw scrutiny over insider trading.
Related news
TRM Labs valuation doubles to $2 billion, completes Series C funding round
According to Cointelegraph, blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs saw its valuation double to $2 billion following an upsized Series C funding round led by Blockchain Capital. The company stated that its annual recurring revenue has quadrupled over the past three years.
TRM Labs Valuation Doubles to $2 Billion, Launches New AI Crime Detection Platform
According to Fortune, blockchain forensics startup TRM Labs has announced a new round of follow-on funding from existing investors, with the amount undisclosed. Driven by the rapid growth of its AI business, the company’s valuation has doubled to $2 billion, up from $1 billion six months ago. CEO Esteban Castano stated that the company expects to soon achieve the $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) milestone and will officially launch a new AI-powered crime investigation platform designed for law enforcement agencies in November, focusing on AI-driven criminal scenarios such as financial fraud, deepfakes, and child sexual exploitation. Castano emphasized that AI serves as the company's second growth engine rather than a business pivot, with blockchain intelligence remaining the core business pillar. The company currently employs approximately 500 people and maintains offices in London, Singapore, and Washington, D.C.
Tether freezes approximately $39.3 million USDT across 10 addresses linked to Xinbi Guarantee
Odaily News: According to sources familiar with the matter, Tether has frozen 10 Tron addresses associated with Xinbi Guarantee today, involving approximately $39.3 million in USDT. The freeze was first reported by MistTrack, the on-chain tracking platform under SlowMist.Xinbi Guarantee is a Chinese-language escrow trading marketplace that emerged on Telegram around 2022. TRM Labs has previously described it as one of the largest illegal cryptocurrency markets in Southeast Asia, stating that it has processed approximately $24.2 billion in transactions cumulatively. (The Block)
2026 has seen 32 price manipulation attacks, impacting a nearly $50 billion crypto lending market
Odaily News: Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reports that 32 price manipulation attacks have been recorded in 2026, surpassing the total of any previous full year; 2025 saw 12 incidents throughout the year. Such attacks account for roughly one-eighth of hacker incidents, up from one-seventeenth in 2022.Attackers typically first inflate the price of low-liquidity tokens, then use them as collateral to borrow other assets from lending protocols. Subsequently, they cause the collateral price to plummet and abandon the collateral, potentially leading to bad debt in the lending pools.According to DeFiLlama data, the total value locked in crypto-collateralized lending protocols has grown by approximately 56% over the past two years, approaching $50 billion, with active loan volume nearing $29 billion. The sector currently hosts over 570 lending protocols.Recently, Tectonic suffered losses exceeding $70 million after the TONIC price was artificially inflated, with the attacker ultimately extracting approximately $6 million in assets after the Cronos chain was rolled back; Moonwell also previously incurred losses of around $8.7 million due to manipulation of the MAMO oracle price. (Bitcoin.com News)
1:1 compensation for legitimate holders prior to the vulnerability incident; The Sandbox will reimburse cross-chain SAND using treasury funds
Odaily News, The Sandbox has released a post-mortem report on the August 22 vulnerability incident. The report shows that attackers exploited vulnerabilities in contracts related to cross-chain configurations on Base and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), stealing 14,742,341.84 SAND from the Ethereum treasury, accounting for approximately 0.5% of the maximum supply, with an estimated economic impact of approximately $1.4968 million, of which about $987,000 was actually retained by the attackers. The Ethereum mainnet and Polygon network were not affected. Until further notice, please do not purchase or send SAND on Base or BNB Smart Chain. Contracts deployed on Base and BNB Smart Chain have been permanently deactivated and will not be reopened. The Sandbox stated that the team has reported the attacker's wallet address to blockchain analysis firms TRM Labs and Chainalysis, and has communicated directly with relevant exchanges. The Sandbox also announced a compensation plan, which will compensate wallets that legitimately held cross-chain SAND on Base or BSC prior to the incident at a 1:1 ratio in Ethereum SAND. Compensation funds will come from The Sandbox treasury, with no new tokens issued. The claim process will open within the next two weeks and remain open for two weeks.
TRM Labs: AI Applications in Crypto Crime Grew by 40% Over the Past Year
According to The Block, TRM Labs' latest report shows that AI applications in cryptocurrency crime grew by 40% year-over-year over the past year, primarily driven by fraud activities. In the first half of 2026, digital asset hacking incidents reached 201, a new record high, with approximately 75% of the losses concentrated in just 4% of the incidents. North Korean-linked activities caused approximately $600 million in losses, accounting for 61% of the total losses in the first half of the year. TRM Labs noted that AI has not created new types of crime, but has significantly lowered the barrier to criminal activity and expanded the scale of attacks.