Share this article

Blockchain Capital Leads $1.7 Million Round for Crypto Compliance Startup

Venture capital firm Blockchain Capital has led a $1.7 million seed round for San Francisco-based crypto compliance startup TRM Labs.

Updated Sep 13, 2021, 8:51 a.m. Published Jan 31, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
Spencer Bogart

Venture capital firm Blockchain Capital has led a $1.7 million seed round for San Francisco-based crypto compliance startup TRM Labs.

Announcing the news on Thursday, TRM said other participating investors included Tapas Capital, Green D Ventures and The MBA Fund.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Founded in 2017, TRM is a regulatory technology startup that aims to streamline compliance in the crypto industry. The seed funding will go toward scaling its engineering team and further developing its token relationship management platform, it said.

“We believe that cryptocurrency is going to be a democratizing force in the world that lets anyone exchange value and access financial services. But to get there, we need to make it easier for everyone to be compliant,” said TRM CEO and co-founder Esteban Castaño.

TRM’s first product, its token relationship management platform, is designed to help crypto companies streamline their anti-money laundering (AML) compliance efforts, offering customer due diligence, transaction monitoring and customer relationship management, the firm said.

The company is also working on building other platforms using big data and machine learning to automatically detect suspicious activities like money laundering and market manipulation.

Blockchain Capital – which has a portfolio that boasts names like Coinbase, Ripple, Circle and Kraken – has set up several funds seeking to invest in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. Ripple invested $25 million-worth of XRP tokens in its Parallel IV venture fund last April.

More recently, in November 2018, Blockchain Capital led a $13 million Series A funding round for security token startup Securitize, a firm that aims to digitize traditional securities products on a blockchain.

Blockchain Capital partner Spencer Bogart image via CoinDesk archives

More For You

KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

16:9 Image

KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

More For You

Bitcoin dips, but quickly recovers as U.S. captures Venezuela's Maduro

Nicolas Maduro

The U.S. overnight launched a military strike against Venezuela, capturing President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and extracting them from the country.

What to know:

  • The U.S. captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife after a brief military operation Saturday morning, according to President Trump.
  • Crypto prices suffered a brief, modest drop on the first reports of the military action, but have since recovered.