TRM Talks

On this TRM Talks, Ari sits down with the team behind Unchained DEX in the City — three of the sharpest legal minds in crypto and three of his closest friends — for a wide-ranging conversation about the regulatory questions reshaping the industry in real time. TuongVy Le, Jessi Brooks, and Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos bring their distinct backgrounds as prosecutors, general counsels, and enforcement...

If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer came online tomorrow, every token on every blockchain would be a target — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana all share signature schemes that pre-date the post-quantum era. The math has been clear since the 1990s. What's been missing is the machine. That uncomfortable truth anchors this week's TRM Talks. Brett Falk, research faculty at the University of P...

Brynly Llyr has deep roots in fintech and blockchain — in-house at eBay, PayPal, and Ripple, where she served as one of the first general counsels in crypto, then founding team at Celo, then Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at the World Economic Forum. Now she’s Deputy Commissioner for Digital Financial Assets at the California DFPI, leading the rollout of the Digital Financial Assets Law, wh...

Behind every laundered transaction is a real victim, a real crime, and a real reason to do this work well. That conviction has shaped Sophie Bowler's entire career — from her first job working on the EU's Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive as an intern in Brussels, to her current role as Global Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Zodia Custody. In this conversation with Ari Redbord ,...

Catherine Gu has always been at the center of the shift toward the decentralization of money, a transformation that was once theoretical but is now actively reshaping global financial markets through stablecoins and on-chain infrastructure. Inspired in part by Hayek’s vision of competing private forms of money, Catherine’s work sits at the intersection of that idea and its real-world implementatio...

When the Bitcoin white paper landed in 2008, most people saw a payment system. Shaul Kfir saw a privacy problem — because he had spent years working on the zero-knowledge proof technology that would eventually make private transactions possible on blockchains. That instinct shaped everything that followed, including the Canton Network, the blockchain he co-founded that now moves trillions of dolla...

Crypto investigations are becoming a core part of modern policing. From ransomware and darknet markets to fraud and organized crime, digital assets increasingly appear in criminal investigations. Det. Anoop “Snoop” Dattani of the Regional Organized Crime Unit at West Midlands Police joins Ari to discuss how investigators are adapting. Drawing on nearly two decades in policing and extensive cyber i...

Chee Kin Lam, Head of Legal and Compliance at DBS Bank — one of the world's first major banks to receive a digital payment token license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore — joins Ari on this episode of TRM Talks. Chee Kin shares a career spanning 30-plus years across JP Morgan, Standard Chartered, and DBS Bank, and what he learned along the way about people, culture, and getting things...

Privacy and transparency sit at the heart of the digital asset ecosystem. As blockchain technology continues to reshape global finance, policymakers and builders face a critical question: How can financial systems preserve privacy while still protecting against illicit activity? In this episode, Yaya Fanusie, Global Head of Policy at Aleo, join's Ari to explore the evolving intersection of pri...

Romance and “investment” scams are not random. They are engineered — built on trust, pressure, and highly scripted manipulation. And while crypto is often the payment rail, the underlying crime is familiar: fraud that targets everyday people and drains life savings. In this episode, Detective Matt Hogan of the Connecticut State Police and scam survivor Jackie Crenshaw join Ari to walk through how...

Kah Kit Yip has spent his career turning bold ideas about the future of money into working infrastructure. After nearly two decades at Malaysia’s central bank and leading breakthrough initiatives at the Bank for International Settlements, he helped pioneer new models for instant cross-border payments, programmable compliance, and faster, safer FX settlement. Now, as Head of Blockchain and Digital...

From the Federal Reserve on 9/11 to Capitol Hill during the 2008 financial crisis, Adam Meinhardt’s career spans some of the most pivotal moments in economic policy. Now, as Head of Public Policy at Chainlink, he's helping shape crypto regulation during a historic legislative push. In this episode, Adam joins Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy at TRM Labs, to explore what it takes to engage policy...

Crypto law has matured quickly — and few people have been closer to that evolution than OG crypto lawyer Joshua Klayman. In this episode of TRM Talks, Joshua Klayman, US Head of Fintech and Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at Linklaters, joins Ari for a wide-ranging conversation on how legal frameworks around digital assets, tokenization, and blockchain-based finance are taking shape in real...

What does the future of crypto look like in 2026? TRM’s global team weighs in. In this special New Year’s edition, Ari is joined by TRM colleagues from around the world — investigators, compliance leaders, product strategists, and policy experts — to share their bold predictions for 2026. Across the episode, TRM team members explore: The end of theory, and the beginning of execution How AI is acce...

2025 was the year of stablecoins — and there’s no better person to look back (and ahead) with than Dante Disparte of Circle. In this Flash TRM Talks, Ari and Dante reflect on Circle’s big year, the passage of the GENIUS Act, shifting US market structure, and accelerating global regulatory alignment. They also share predictions for 2026 — including why privacy and global coordination will define cr...

How do you build a forward-looking regulatory framework while keeping innovation moving at internet speed? In this episode, Ari is joined by Kenneth Gay, Chief FinTech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), for a wide-ranging conversation on technology, regulation, and the future of finance. Together, they trace Kenneth’s 21-year journey across enforcement, markets, macro-financial...

What do Al Capone, the Bitfinex hack, and the largest child-exploitation takedown in history have in common? IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) played a defining role in all of them. In the latest episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Chief Guy Ficco — the head of IRS-CI — for a wide-ranging conversation on how one of the smallest federal law-enforcement agencies has become one of the most pow...

As digital assets move into the regulatory spotlight, few have the global vantage point of Tom Duff Gordon, Vice President of International Policy at Coinbase. With experience ranging from banking at Credit Suisse to steering policy at one of the world’s largest crypto firms, Tom offers a rare behind-the-scenes view into how crypto policy is shaped around the world. In this episode, Tom joins Ari...

Detective David Coffey has spent more than 25 years with the Toronto Police Service, tackling everything from violent street crime to complex financial fraud. In this episode, he joins Ari, to unpack the evolving nature of fraud in Canada — and how crypto is changing the game. Now assigned to the Financial Crimes Unit, Det. Coffey reflects on his journey from divisional beat cop to leading major f...

Stablecoins are transforming how money moves — and nowhere is that shift more dynamic than in Asia. In this episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Yam Ki Chan, Vice President for Asia Pacific at Circle, to explore how stablecoins are powering the next chapter of cross-border payments, trade finance, and digital money innovation. From his early days tinkering with school computers in Chicago to h...

Over the last decade we have seen a shift from experimentation to implementation in digital finance and few people have been closer to that evolution than Wee Kee Toh, Executive Director and Global Head of Business Architecture for Kinexys Digital Payments at JP Morgan. Wee Kee joins Ari to explore the arc of institutional crypto adoption — from his early work at the Monetary Authority of Singapor...

Stablecoins are having a moment. In this episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Lesley Chavkin, Head of Global Policy at Paxos and former US Treasury official, to unpack the regulatory evolution shaping the future of digital finance. Lesley shares her journey from building anti-money laundering frameworks in the Middle East, to building at Stellar, to now helping guide Paxos through a pivotal pe...

How did a Wall Street-bound grad become a pioneer in counterterrorism and threat intelligence? In this episode, Josh Lefkowitz, CEO of Flashpoint, joins Ari to unpack that journey — and share critical insights from the frontlines of global threat monitoring. Josh shares how 9/11 transformed his career trajectory and catalyzed his entry into the national security world. Fast forward to today, Flash...

Former Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Director Steve Francis dedicated his life to public service from a young age, rising to the pinnacle of US federal law enforcement. On this episode of TRM Talks, Steve joins Ari to reflect on a career defined by protecting the financial system, empowering agents in the field, and building innovative enforcement programs that span borders and sectors. S...

Can a crypto-native company become a fully licensed bank? Joey Garcia not only believes it, he has done it. In this episode, Bitcoin pioneer and Xapo Bank’s Executive Director Joey Garcia joins Ari, to share the story of building a crypto-native bank. From advising government in the early days of Bitcoin in Gibraltar to leading Xapo’s transformation into a regulated financial institution, Joey off...