Crypto crimes have increased exponentially over the past years, with some of the most infamous cases still vibrating in our ears. Among the great losses are the Mt. Gox hack, the PlusToken scam, the FTX collapse, and the OneCoin scam. Although several governments have brought to light strict anti-money laundering (AML) rules and other stringent rules, crypto crime has grown, becoming a nightmare for many investors.
However, a blockchain company has come forward to defeat the blockchain crimes! Blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs introduced Beacon Network: the first-ever real-time crypto crime response network, which is much efficient than the previous one.
TRM Lab’s Beacon Network to combat crypto crimes
“Over the past year, crypto criminals have stolen nearly $20 billion of cryptocurrencies”, said Esteban Castano, the Co-Founder and CEO of Beacon Network, and this is why the company initiated this project: “the first-ever real-time crypto crime disruption network.” TRM Labs’ latest advancement on Beacon Network is built in collaboration with “law enforcement, exchanges, and stablecoin issuers, Beacon.
Binance, Coinbase, PayPal unite to curb criminal funds
The current Beacon Network is a collaborative initiative from Binance, Coinbase, PayPal, Kraken, Robinhood, Ripple, Stripe, Crypto.com, Zodia Custody, Bitfinex, Blockchain.com, Anchorage Digital, HTX, Poloniex, OKX, LFJ, 1inch, Rhino.fi, Coinspot, and ChangeNow.
“PayPal is proud to be a founding member of Beacon Network, joining forces with industry leaders and law enforcement to combat crypto-related financial crime in real time”, said David Szuchman of PayPal.
Meanwhile, Shakthi Ganesan, AML Compliance Officer at Robinhood Crypto, added that his company is proud to “help increase trust and security” in the crypto landscape.
Beacon Network in 2022
TRM Labs launched the original Beacon Network in November 2022 to report public-private criminal incidents. The network used TRM’s forensics interface to alert on crimes and take faster actions. The main focus of the system was to help law enforcement and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to instantly connect with the network after an incident.
How does the latest Beacon Network work to fight crypto crimes?
With the latest expansion of Beacon Network, TRM is focusing on real-time responses. The system automatically tracks and spreads the information fetched by verified investigators, flagging illegal wallet addresses. An instant alert goes off as flagged funds reach the exchanges or issuers, freezing the funds before they are converted into actual money.
Real-time alerts – the system detects suspicious activities and quickly notifies all the network participants.
Automated propagation – automatically applies risk labels across connected addresses.
Verified investigators – Only vetted participants and institutions can spot and flag addresses.
Collaboration from miles apart – the Beacon Network operates with coordination from law enforcement agencies and exchanges like Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken.
From a reactive to a proactive approach
Beacon Network’s strategic jump from the reactive mode (2022) to the prevention mode (2025) signals the anticipated reduction of criminal activities in the crypto ecosystem. In short, when a crime occurs, the new system responds and takes action rather than simply reacting. With collaborative efforts and real-time features in hand, Beacon Network is expected to defeat crypto crimes and gain increased trust in cryptocurrencies.
