- Beacon Network as been described as an “end-to-end kill chain for illicit crypto assets”
- It is aimed at detecting, flagging, and initiating action against illicit crypto activities within minutes
- Crypto players, law enforcement agencies, and security researchers are part of the network
TRM Labs, Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken among other crypto giants have come together to launch an initiative to combat crypto crimes in real time. Announcing the “Beacon Network” on August 20, TRM Labs said that window to detect and control a financial crime is measured in minutes — which is what this initiative is aimed at facilitating.
The ongoing year of 2025 has hit a record-high so far in terms of the increased number of crypto hacks. So far, over $2.3 billion is already estimated to have been stolen from the global crypto ecosystem by means of advanced and sophisticated hack attacks.
With the Beacon Network, leading crypto players have teamed up with international law enforcement authorities as well as onchain intelligence firms to reduce the timeframe of identifying a crypto crime and mitigating as many risks as possible.
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PayPal, Robinhood, Ripple, Crypto.com, OKX, and Bitfinex among others are also members of the Beacon Network alongside security firms ZackXBT, Security Alliance (SEAL), Operation Shamrock, and CryptoForensics Investigators.
“Federal law enforcement agencies globally are actively contributing to the network, flagging addresses linked to critical threats and triggering alerts that help stop illicit actors before they can cash out. Security firms are providing continuous monitoring to identify and track threats,” the announcement said.
Going forward, the Beacon Network will work to flag suspicious wallets, generate real-time alerts on the movement of flagged tokens, and push a proactively prevent flagged tokens from withdrawals. This is an industry attempt to keep stolen crypto funds from losing transaction trails after being off-ramped.
“Funds from the USD 1.5 billion Bybit hack earlier this year moved through over 10,000 transactions in the first month after the attack, triggering an urgent need for faster detection, response, and coordination across the crypto ecosystem,” the announcement noted.
Also read: Police impersonation scams drag cold crypto wallets under risk in U.K
Stablecoin issuers, DeFi platforms, exchanges, and security researchers have been invited to join the movement to tackle exploitation of crypto for threat activities like terror financing and ransomware payments.
The announcement further asserted that only verified “flaggers” will be able to send alerts on potential crypto crimes. These would include members of vetted law enforcement agencies, partner level members of the Beacon Network, and security analysts.
“Beacon Network is the first end-to-end “kill chain” for illicit crypto assets, moving from detection to action in minutes rather than days. In real time, Beacon Network automatically traces those funds across the blockchain and propagates that intelligence to connected services,” TRM Labs added in its statement.
