JPMorgan Invests in Blockchain Firm TRM

J.P. Morgan Chase is the latest investor in blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs, according to a Monday (Feb. 28) press release. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. The investment will help the San Francisco company fund its cryptocurrency compliance and risk management technology, the release stated. “Financial institutions, cryptocurrency businesses, regulators and law enforcement agencies worldwide use TRM’s technology to monitor cryptocurrency transactions for suspicious activity and to trace the movement of stolen or other illicitly obtained funds,” the company said in the release. TRM Co-Founder and CEO Esteban Castaño said the investment, which comes in the wake of a recent $60 million Series B, showcases the importance of the growing crypto economy and of making a safe ecosystem for it to grow, according to the release. TRM’s transaction monitoring solution lets financial institutions (FIs) and cryptocurrency businesses to meet anti-money laundering (AML) regulatory requirements and manage reputational and operational risk. Law enforcement bodies use TRM’s forensics tool to investigate crypto-related crime. The company said in the release its platform is the only one that provides cross-chain analytics, which allows for the detection and investigation of high-risk activity across multiple blockchains. Last year, the company raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, PayPal Ventures. “TRM’s vision to drive security and integrity in crypto ecosystems through sophisticated analytics solutions aligns with our ambitions for building blockchain products at J.P. Morgan that are compliant and secure,” said Onyx by J.P. Morgan CEO Umar Farooq in the Monday release. “We’ve spent the last six years exploring the possibilities and applicability of blockchain technology — leading infrastructure companies like TRM will help usher in the future of secure blockchain and crypto use cases.”