TRM Talks

In this special episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Tyler Williams, Counselor to the Secretary of the US Treasury for digital assets and one of the lead architects of last week’s landmark White House report on digital assets. Ari and Tyler, from inside the historic Cash Room at Treasury, unpack the 163-page report which outlines a forward-looking framework for market structure, stablecoin ove...

This week on TRM Talks, Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy, TRM Labs, sits down with Nikhil Raghuveera, CEO of Predicate, to talk about the future of compliance in decentralized finance — and why the next wave of policy innovation will be built directly into code. As DeFi matures and regulators sharpen their focus, projects are facing a new challenge: how to meet real-world policy and legal expect...

What happens when a veteran of traditional finance decides to help shape the future of crypto compliance? In this episode, Kraken Chief Compliance Officer CJ Rinaldi joins Ari Redbord, TRM's Global Head of Policy, to discuss his journey from the the SEC to UBS and Deutsche Bank and finally to crypto compliance at  Blockchain.com  and now Kraken. CJ delves into what makes a world-class compliance p...

What does effective crypto regulation look like in practice? Ryosuke Ushida, Chief FinTech Officer, Financial Services Agency of Japan (JFSA) joins Ari Redbord , Global Head of Policy at TRM Lab to discuss how Japan became a global leader in regulating digital assets — and what the rest of the world can learn. From the collapse of Mt. Gox to the containment of FTX's fallout, Japan's regulatory evo...

On this episode of TRM Talks, Ari Redbord sits down with Michael Greenwald — former US Treasury attaché to the Gulf and now Global Head of Financial Innovation and Digital Assets at AWS — to explore the intersection of financial innovation and governments. From representing the United States in high-stakes financial diplomacy to building bridges between policymakers, technologists, and financial i...

On the eve of the most important legislative discussion in US crypto history, Congressman Bryan Steil, Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence, joins Ari Redbord, TRM's Global Head of Policy, to discuss the most significant legislative efforts impacting the future of digital assets in the United States. With a market...

In this episode, Ari Redbord, TRM's Global head of Policy, sits down with Kate Eyerman, Chief Compliance Officer at  Blockchain.com , to unpack her unconventional path from the US State Department and Treasury to leading compliance in one of crypto’s most dynamic environments. With deep experience in counter-terrorism financing and sanctions policy, Kate brings a policy-informed lens to naviga...

Crypto compliance is a journey — and sometimes it feels like flying a plane while building it. Fortunately, this week’s TRM Talks guest knows how to do both. Brandi Reynolds, licensed pilot and trailblazer in crypto compliance, joins Ari Redbord, TRM’s Global Head of Policy, for a high-altitude conversation on what it takes to build and scale effective compliance programs for crypto businesses. Wi...

Binance is the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — and at its core are people working to shape the future of digital finance. In this episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Eleanor Hughes (General Counsel( and Steven McWhirter, (Global Policy Lead), for an insider conversation on how Binance is navigating today’s evolving global regulatory environment. Eleanor reflects on her journey from...

What happens when a top financial journalist turns her lens on crypto policy? In this episode, Ari sits down with Eleanor Terrett — former Fox Business reporter and co-host of the "Crypto in America" podcast — for a timely conversation on how US regulation is reshaping the digital asset ecosystem. Ellie reflects on her path from the New York Stock Exchange to becoming one of the most tru...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Virtual Assets Unit Chief Patrick Wyman, joins Ari on this episode of TRM Talks to explore the Bureau’s evolving strategy for combating crypto-related crime. Patrick shares his unconventional journey from mortgage fraud investigator to leading the FBI’s work on virtual assets. He explains how the Virtual Assets Unit operates as a cross-programmatic force...

North Korea just executed the biggest crypto heist in history, stealing USD 1.5 billion from Bybit. But how did they do it? And can they be stopped? On this episode of TRM Talks, Jean Lee (The Lazarus Heist) and Nick Carlsen (TRM Labs, Former FBI) join Ari to break down: The making of a cyber army — how North Korea recruits and trains hackers from childhood The Bybit hack step by step — from infil...

In this very timely episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Katherine Minarik, Chief Legal Officer at Uniswap Labs, to discuss a truly extraordinary week in crypto legal history. Katherine, formerly head of litigation at Coinbase, shares her firsthand insights on the SEC’s decision to dismiss its case against Coinbase and to close its investigation into Uniswap, signaling a major shift in regulat...

AI reshaping society — the way we live and work. However, it is also supercharging illicit activity from deepfakes to automated fraud, large-scale cyberattacks to child exploitation. In this episode Ari sits down with Hany Farid, UC Berkeley professor and leading expert on deepfakes and AI-driven deception, to unpack how criminals are exploiting artificial intelligence to manipulate reality, commi...

On this episode, Albert Forkner joins Ari as he explores the evolving frontier of finance, sharing his journey from Wyoming’s State Banking Commissioner to leading risk and compliance at Two Ocean Trust. Discover how his work on Wyoming’s innovative SPDI bank charter and his unique perspective on balancing regulation and innovation are helping shape the future of digital assets and trust managemen...

In this episode, Ari speaks with Caroline Hill, Senior Director of Global Policy and Regulatory Strategy at Circle, about Circle's commitment to building with compliance at its core and the future of stablecoin regulation in the United States and globally. Caroline reflects on how her experience at the US Treasury shapes her perspective on regulatory policy and compliance strategy. Today's Guest:...

In this episode Ari sits down with Ronit Ghose, Global Head, Future of Finance, Citi Institute, to discuss how financial institutions are leveraging the power of transformative technologies. In this discussion, Ronit — the author of "Future Money: Fintech, AI and Web3" — explores the rapid transformation of the financial landscape through technologies like blockchain, DeFi, AI and the metaverse. T...

In this episode Ari sits down with the the US Treasury’s Caroline Horres of the Office for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence to discuss Treasury’s playbook for mitigating illicit finance risk in the cryptocurrency space. Caroline, the primary author of Treasury’s DeFi and NFT risk assessments and part of the US delegation to the Financial Action Task Force, discusses how the department uses its...

In this episode Ari sits down with René Michau, Global Head of Digital Assets at Standard Chartered Bank and Esme Hodson, Chief Compliance Office at, SC Ventures to discuss how the bank is building the bridge from TradFi to DeFi through partnerships, innovation in blockchain technology, compliance, and investment in cryptocurrency infrastructure. As the traditional financial system becomes more de...

In this episode Ari sits down with Seth Wilks, Executive Director for the Office of Digital Assets Initiative at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to discuss Seth’s path from guitar riffs to crypto tax policy. Seth talks about his journey from TaxBit to leading the IRS’ work on digital assets including his partnership with TRM Talks alum Raj Mukherjee, their work on the recently published broker...

Dr. Ellen Feingold curates the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History — over 1,000,000 pieces of financial history going back 4000 years. This month she adds the laptop that former IRS-CI Agent Chris Janczewski used to investigate the Bitfinex Hack which led to the largest monetary seizure in US history. In this TRM Talks, Ari Redbord, TRM's Global...

In the episode of TRM Talks, Ari Redbord, TRM's Global Head of Policy, sits down with crypto lawyer Matt McGuire, Partner at Arktouros, to get his perspective on the key legal issues in the cryptoverse. Their discussion covers the gambit: sanctions to securities, consumer protection to anti-money laundering, privacy and security, and the legal issues and battles of today that could define the cryp...

In the episode of TRM Talks, Ari sits down with Santa Clara County, California prosecutor Erin West of the REACT Task Force to discuss the double victimization of pig butchering scams, the importance of a whole of government and private sector approach, and how stopping scams from happening in the first place is the key. Today’s Guests Erin West, Prosecutor, Santa Clara County Host: Ari Redbord, G...

When Anchorage Digital Bank received its  charter from the Office of Comptroller of the Currency in January 2021, it became the first national bank with a charter to custody digital assets. Anchorage, which has built from day one with compliance as critical infrastructure, continues to set a precedent for how digital asset companies can operate within the regulatory framework of the US financial s...

Last year the EU Parliament passed MiCA — Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation. MiCA, arguably the world’s most comprehensive framework for crypto requires crypto-asset service providers and issuers to take action related to governance, consumer protection and AML. As key deadlines approach for MiCA implementation across the continent, Peter Kerstens of the European Commission joins TRM Talks to di...