Blockchain Intelligence Analyst - Ransomware

Hudson Rock partners with TRM Labs as a launch data partner for Ardence, the new AI investigation platform | #cybercrime | #infosec. Discover more Audit Security Compare Security Partnership Announcement October 14, 2026 · Cybercrime Intelligence Bridging the gap between blockchain activity, technical attack infrastructure, and real-world cybercriminal identity to help government investigators, cyber threat analysts, and compliance teams disrupt modern AI-enabled crime. Hudson Rock is proud to be a data partner of Ardence, TRM Labs' new AI investigation platform. Learn more: trmlink.info/3UgApIh As threat actors increasingly weaponize artificial intelligence and infostealer malware to scale cyberattacks, ransomware operations, and illicit financial schemes, defenders and investigators face an unprecedented operational challenge. Today, Hudson Rock is thrilled to announce its official partnership with TRM Labs as a launch data partner within the Ardence Data Network, powering TRM Labs' newly unveiled AI investigation platform, Ardence. Built specifically for government investigators, cyber threat analysts, and compliance teams across more than 600 agencies and institutions in 75 countries, Ardence brings specialized intelligence from more than 60 partners into a single, AI-native platform to tackle cybercrime, fraud, money laundering, sanctions evasion, and terrorism financing. Hudson Rock joins the Ardence Data Network to enrich cybercrime and blockchain investigations with real-time infostealer and cybercriminal identity intelligence. "To catch sophisticated threat actors, investigators must bridge the gap between blockchain activity and cybercriminal identity. Partnering with TRM arms analysts with real-time visibility into high-profile cybercrime networks, drastically accelerating complex investigations from start to finish." Alon Gal, CTO and Co-Founder, Hudson Rock Closing the Capacity Gap in the Era of AI-Enabled Cybercrime Criminal networks are utilizing AI to drastically increase both the volume and velocity of their operations. While investigators possess the tradecraft required to build high-stakes cases, the sheer scale of modern cybercrime has created a severe capacity gap that manual research and hiring alone cannot close. Recent findings from TRM Labs highlight the scale and speed of this evolving threat landscape: +40% Year-over-year surge in criminal use of AI according to TRM's 2026 AI-in-Crime Adoption Index. $21B Losses reported to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025, roughly 5x the 2020 total. 93 New ransomware variants observed in 2025, representing a 94% increase from 2024. 51% Share of ransomware off-ramp volume concentrated across just five laundering services in 2025. Traditionally, cybercrime and nation-state investigations have been slowed down by fragmented intelligence: Evidence is scattered across silos: Threat reporting, domain and infrastructure records, infostealer compromises, and on-chain financial activity sit in separate tools, forcing analysts to spend valuable hours collecting data before they can even assess a campaign. Related attacks are investigated in isolation: Shared infrastructure, malware tooling, compromised credentials, and laundering services often link incidents across organizations, yet a single report rarely reveals the wider operation. Manual research delays operational action: Analysts repeatedly run searches across disconnected platforms and manually reconcile findings into briefings for law enforcement, defenders, and leadership. Understanding the Operation Behind the Attack with Hudson Rock & Ardence Simply connecting a generic AI model to raw data does not provide the investigative tradecraft or audit trail needed for high-consequence environments. Featured prominently on TRM Labs' Cyber Attacks & Cybercrime mission hub, Hudson Rock integrates directly into Ardence's all-source intelligence architecture so investigators can ask questions in natural language and query across cyber, breach, identity, infrastructure, and blockchain sources in parallel. By pairing TRM Labs' blockchain and cross-source intelligence with Hudson Rock's proprietary infostealer and cybercrime intelligence, analysts can seamlessly execute four core investigative workflows: 01 · Research What do National Cyber Security know about this threat? Define threats, geographies, and timeframes in natural language. Ardence compares reported attacks, infrastructure, and campaign patterns across sources to generate source-backed summaries and highlight intelligence gaps. 02 · Connect Which activity belongs to the same operation? Start with an incident report, domain, IP, hash, or handle. Enrich indicators against hosting, malware, infostealer infections, and breach records from Hudson Rock to unmask threat actor identities and shared infrastructure. 03 · Trace What does the financial activity reveal? Pivot from a ransom wallet or stolen-funds transaction to trace on-chain transfers and identify receiving off-ramp venues, correlating blockchain trails directly with Hudson Rock's technical and identity evidence. 04 · Report What does your team need to know? Produce technical summaries, campaign assessments, or executive briefings that clearly separate observed facts from analytical assessments, keeping every finding linked to its underlying source material. Built for High-Stakes Scrutiny and Real-World Disruption As TRM Labs CEO and Co-Founder Esteban Castaño noted at launch, Ardence is engineered to take the most manual work off investigators' plates so the same team can work more cases without sacrificing rigor or precision: Connected Intelligence: The Ardence Data Network unites TRM intelligence with specialized cyber, dark web, identity, corporate, and financial intelligence, including Hudson Rock's infostealer data, under a unified investigative workflow. Expert Tradecraft: Ardence applies repeatable analytic methods developed with experienced CTI and financial crime analysts to follow leads further than a team could by hand. Built for Scrutiny: Every finding stays strictly linked to its source material so reviewers can retrace the exact methods and human decisions behind a conclusion. Carried into Action: The unified investigation record directly supports drafting legal processes, asset-freeze requests, Disruption Sprints, and infrastructure takedowns, already helping global teams protect major international events, dismantle ransomware laundering pipelines, and take down thousands of scam sites. Through this partnership, Hudson Rock's unmatched visibility into global info-stealer infections and cybercriminal ecosystems empowers Ardence users to connect compromised credentials, infected machines, and threat actor footprints directly to on-chain illicit finance, turning fragmented indicators into decisive disruption. To learn more about how Hudson Rock protects companies from imminent intrusions caused by info-stealer infections of employees, partners, and users, as well as how National Cyber Security enrich existing cybersecurity solutions with its cybercrime intelligence API, please schedule a call with National Cyber Security, here:https://www.hudsonrock.com/schedule-demo National Cyber Security also provide access to various free cybercrime intelligence tools that you can find here:www.hudsonrock.com/free-tools Thanks for reading, Rock Hudson Rock!

TRM Labs doubles valuation to $2B as it expands into AI. TRM Labs' valuation doubled to $2 billion as the blockchain analytics firm prepares to launch a new AI-focused investigations platform in November. Published 2 hours ago · Updated 1 hour ago Key Highlights * TRM Labs said its valuation has doubled to $2 billion, six months after raising $70 million at a $1 billion valuation. * CEO Esteban Castano said the new funding reflects investor interest in TRM's planned AI investigations platform, which is expected to launch publicly in November. * The platform is designed to investigate AI-related fraud, deepfakes, sextortion and other crimes alongside TRM's existing blockchain analytics business. TRM Labs said its valuation has doubled to $2 billion following an add-on funding round from existing investors, six months after the blockchain analytics company raised $70 million at a $1 billion valuation. In an interview on September 9, CEO Esteban Castano said the funding reflects investor interest in the company's planned expansion into AI investigations while TRM continues its blockchain analytics business. The new valuation comes as TRM prepares to launch an AI investigations platform in November and continues to compete for government and institutional contracts. TRM raises additional funding from existing investors. TRM did not disclose the size of the latest funding round. Castano described it as "modest" and said the capital came entirely from existing investors. The company previously raised a $70 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation. Blockchain Capital led the round, with participation from Goldman Sachs, Bessemer Venture Partners, Y Combinator, Thoma Bravo and Galaxy Ventures. The financing brought TRM's total funding to approximately $220 million across seven rounds, according to the company. Castano said TRM expects to exceed $100 million in annual recurring revenue within weeks. He also said the company has about 500 employees, with offices or operations in London, Singapore and Washington, D.C. Castano has described the valuation as a recruitment tool, calling it a "bat signal." TRM's $95M ICE contract faces Chainalysis challenge. TRM's valuation increase follows a recent contract win with the U.S. government. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarded TRM Labs a contract worth approximately $95 million for blockchain analytics and crypto-tracing capabilities used in investigations. ICE awarded the contract through a sole-source procurement process - a direct award to one vendor without a competitive bidding round - after conducting market research to determine whether other vendors could provide the required capabilities. On August 17, ICE gave vendors six days to respond during the market research process. The agency subsequently determined that TRM was the only company that met its stated requirements. Those are Chainalysis' allegations and do not establish that ICE or TRM violated procurement rules. The dispute provides additional context on the competition between the two companies in the government market. TRM plans AI investigations platform. TRM is preparing to publicly launch a new investigations platform in November focused on crimes involving artificial intelligence. According to Castano, the platform will address areas including AI-enabled fraud, deepfakes, sextortion and child sexual abuse material. TRM argues that criminal networks increasingly operate across different types of crime and that cryptocurrency activity can help investigators connect related activity. Castano also said AI has reduced some of the technical barriers involved in fraud and manipulation, allowing certain activities to be carried out more quickly and at greater scale. These are the company's stated reasons for developing the platform. Because it has not yet launched publicly, its performance and customer adoption cannot yet be assessed. TRM's valuation contrasts with Chainalysis. TRM's new valuation differs sharply from the most recently disclosed valuation of Chainalysis, its larger and more established competitor. Chainalysis raised $170 million at an $8.6 billion valuation in 2022. Its valuation was later reported at approximately $1.55 billion in 2026, according Chianalysis blog publsied in May. The figures come from different funding periods and market conditions, so they do not provide a direct measure of the companies' current relative value. Chainalysis remains an established provider of blockchain intelligence. The company says it serves more than 1,500 organizations, including government agencies, financial institutions and crypto businesses. TRM's latest valuation therefore does not show that it has overtaken Chainalysis in market size. It reflects the price assigned to TRM in its latest financing and investor expectations around its existing business and planned products. Crypto crime creates demand for investigative tools. Blockchain investigation companies operate in a market shaped by the use of cryptocurrency in scams, ransomware, sanctions evasion, hacks, and other criminal activity. Chainalysis estimated that illicit cryptocurrency activity reached approximately $158 billion in 2025, while crypto hacks accounted for about $3.4 billion in losses. The figures are estimates based on the firm's methodology. TRM has also reported increased use of AI in scams and fraud. Its global head of policy, Ari Redbord, previously said the company had observed a 500% increase in AI-enabled use in scams and fraud. Government agencies have also used multiple blockchain analytics providers in cryptocurrency-related investigations. The IRS has said it began working with more than one provider rather than relying on a single vendor. These developments provide context for the market in which TRM operates as it adds AI-focused investigation tools. AI could broaden TRM's product scope. TRM's planned AI platform would take the company beyond investigations centered primarily on blockchain transactions. The company says cryptocurrency can connect different forms of online crime because digital assets are used across multiple illicit activities. The approach would also place TRM in competition with companies providing cybersecurity, fraud-detection and other investigative software, rather than only with blockchain analytics firms. The public launch in November should provide a clearer opportunity to assess the platform's capabilities and customer adoption. What comes next for TRM. TRM enters the next stage with a $2 billion valuation, a large federal contract and a planned AI investigations platform. The ICE contract remains subject to Chainalysis' legal challenge, while the AI product has yet to launch publicly. The company's stated $100 million ARR target and future customer adoption will provide additional indicators of how its business is developing. For now, the latest financing reflects investor expectations rather than a completed test of TRM's AI strategy. The November launch and the outcome of the ICE procurement dispute will provide further information about the company's position in the blockchain intelligence market. Disclaimer: The information researched and reported by The Crypto Times is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional financial advice. Investing in crypto assets involves significant risk due to market volatility. Always Do Your Own Research (DYOR) and consult with a qualified Financial Advisor before making any investment decisions.