Citing a deep dive regional survey by TRM’s policy team, the trend across the world was overwhelmingly (80%) towards tightening regulation and more consumer protection measures. “Regulation is about control and the requirements needed to prevent illicit activity. Sufficient enforcement is there to make sure there are consequences,” Angela said, noting more levers for action against recalcitrant entities were needed. She added that responsibility also lay with the authorities who needed a deep understanding of implementation of the technology and controls regulated entities must comply with, to ensure they are meeting the requirements of the regulatory outcomes they have in mind. Which also requires having enough skilled people to conduct rigorous supervision, as needed. The conversation then turned to the perceived talent shortage in the crypto compliance space. While explaining that digital finance was different from traditional finance, she said that older principles of compliance and risk management were still appliable “but the devil is in the details,” adding: “You need good governance and disclosures; it is the same with traditional finance as with digital finance. There is overlap, but the technology of blockchain and crypto creates differences. For example, verifying ownership of a bank account is different from verifying ownership of a blockchain wallet.” The changed landscape that technology brings also gives rise to the related topics of SupTech and RegTech – a key part of what TRM does. As Angela explains, crypto compliance professionals use TRM’s tools for ongoing due diligence and transaction monitoring. Yet, regulators also use TRM’s offerings RegTech purposes – to obtain real-time information about entities’ activities on the blockchain. “As regulators build their knowledge of blockchain and crypto, we will see greater opportunities for SupTech applications offering real-time monitoring, without adding to the [compliance] burden of regulated entities. The goal of SupTech should be to make tools user friendly for non-experts such as non-cryptographers and non-asset tracers,” she said. TRM Labs’ data shows that when it comes to the percentage of crypto crimes emanating from Asia, the total amount involved US34.8 billion, but that is still just 0.63% of the global total. Angela notes that figure is comparable to traditional finance, while acknowledging that crypto is borderless and that organizations and syndicates operate across borders across and from Asia. To that end, she says VASPs have evolved to have better responses to crypto crime, citing the loss of trust in recent years. “They are winning it [trust] back. As the industry matures, with more governance and compliance, they realize their role in fighting crime,” she said, emphasizing TRM’s role in working with both the public and private sector. Angela stresses that VASPs have lower rates of crypto crimes with proper licensing and mandated risk controls than in less regulated jurisdictions. While noting that there are different degrees of risk controls, “few exchanges in the world now exist with no risk controls,” she says. “Those are high risk exchanges and conduits for bad actors moving outside regulated parameters. Most exchanges have degrees of risk control and there has been a levelling up of crypto regulation across world.” Looking ahead, she pointed to the issue of market misconduct as an evolving area in digital finance. The FinTech task force of the Madrid-based International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Fintech Taskforce has singled it out as a priority item for crypto regulators, she says.