Thomas de Zoete

Thomas de Zoete is a National Security Lead at Chainalysis where he works with governments all across the globe to strengthen their programs regarding cryptocurrency. He assists those responsible for national security to combat cryptocurrency-financed threats and close intelligence gaps with training, advanced data analytics, research and investigative services. After he served for more than ten years in the Dutch public sector, where he led a team specialized in blockchain analysis, he joined Chainalysis to continue his mission mapping out blockchain data to real world entities - on a global scale.

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Talk: Stormy seas, stablecoins plz ? Iranian proxies usage of cryptocurrency [TLP: AMBER+STRICT]

The IRGC, Iran’s primary security force which also plays an outsized role in the country’s politics and economy, has a well-documented history of exploiting various financial channels, and especially cryptocurrencies, to fund its activities and support proxy groups. While cryptocurrency’s borderless and instantaneous features may make it appealing for moving large amounts of value - we're talking hundreds of millions of USD worth of virtual assets here - it also provides unprecedented transparency into Iran's on-chain footprint. In this session, we’ll explore the background of the Houthis, examine large-scale crypto funds transfers by Houthi wallet addresses, and analyze the effect of sanctioning digital currency addresses in the context of some of the Houthis’ key commercial and military facilitation relationships.