Podcast Atlas

Crypto's big growth on the books and in the shadows

source Episode summary Updated 2026-07-12 Tags: Podcast, Marketplace-Tech, Crypto, Stablecoins, Sanctions, Fraud, Aml

Summary

This Marketplace Tech episode has Stephanie Hughes interview Ari Redbord of TRM Labs about a report that put illicit crypto activity at roughly $158 billion in 2025. The episode keeps two claims in tension: legitimate crypto use is growing faster than criminal use, but the same infrastructure, especially Stablecoins, can support sanctions evasion, scam networks, and a shadow economy outside traditional banking controls.

The consumer-fraud half connects crypto crime to Pig Butchering Scam, Work-From-Home Scam, fake account balances, underreported losses, and AI-Enabled Scam Industrialization. Redbord’s central enforcement position is targeted pressure on illicit actors, exchanges, facilitators, and scam networks rather than a broad rejection of crypto rails.

Key Claims

  • TRM Labs reported roughly $158 billion in illicit crypto activity in 2025, described by the episode as an all-time high.
  • The episode says legitimate crypto use is growing faster than illegitimate use, so the problem is framed as governance, enforcement, and platform-risk control rather than crypto being mainly criminal.
  • A7A5 is identified as a Russia-related stablecoin and as the largest driver of sanctions activity, and one of the largest overall drivers of illicit crypto activity, in 2025.
  • Sanctions-related crypto activity is described as rising more than 400% in the prior year and as the largest contributor to the overall increase in illicit crypto activity.
  • Stablecoin Sanctions Evasion works because crypto can move value outside the U.S. financial system, challenging a sanctions regime that depends heavily on dollar-system dominance.
  • U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins are presented as useful for financial access in places such as Venezuela and Argentina, while the same properties can help bad actors move funds outside traditional controls.
  • Redbord cites targeted enforcement against two Iran-based crypto exchanges allegedly used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and later sanctions against Prince Group as examples of going after the illicit underbelly of a mostly lawful ecosystem.
  • The episode says crypto scam losses reached about $35 billion in 2025 and about $100 billion over the prior three years, while scam reporting is heavily incomplete.
  • Pig Butchering Scam cases can last for months, using social media, Telegram, text messages, romance, trust-building, small apparent returns, and fake investment opportunities before larger transfers are requested.
  • Work-From-Home Scam cases use fake task platforms, fabricated earnings balances, and withdrawal fees, deposits, or tax requests to extract money from people seeking flexible work.
  • AI use in scams and fraud is described as increasing about 500% over the prior year, with deepfake video, cloned audio, personalized narratives, and automated outreach making scams more scalable and believable.

Key Quotes

“outside the U.S. financial system” - why illicit actors may prefer crypto rails for sanctions evasion.

“target the illicit underbelly” - Redbord’s enforcement frame for preserving lawful crypto use.

“industrialization of scams” - Redbord’s description of AI-enabled fraud operations.

Connections

Contradictions

  • No direct contradiction found with existing wiki content.
  • The source extends Stablecoins by adding sanctions evasion and scam-network use, while preserving the existing wiki distinction between real payment demand and AML-sensitive misuse.