Former MAS official Ziqing Ang joins TRM Labs as APAC policy head

TRM Labs has appointed former Monetary Authority of Singapore official Ziqing Ang as Head of Policy for Asia-Pacific as the blockchain intelligence firm tracks more than $103 billion in adjusted crypto crime volume in 2025.
Summary

• TRM Labs has appointed former MAS official Ziqing Ang as Head of Policy for Asia Pacific, where she will work with regulators, law enforcement and private institutions.
• TRM tracked adjusted crypto crime volume rising from about $123 million in 2020 to more than $103 billion in 2025.
• Investment scams, including pig butchering schemes, accounted for 62% of fraud inflows last year, while AI enabled scam activity increased 40%.
• Ang spent more than eight years at MAS before moving into institutional digital assets through roles at Sygnum and BPI Financial Group.
• Her appointment follows TRM's hiring of former MAS regulator Claudia Hui as Head of Compliance Advisory for APAC last month.

According to details shared with crypto.news, Ang will work with regulators, policymakers, law enforcement agencies and private institutions across Asia-Pacific, focusing on illicit financial networks and policy responses as governments develop rules for digital assets and artificial intelligence.

Her appointment comes as criminal groups across the region increasingly use cryptocurrency alongside new technology to run investment scams and other fraud operations. TRM tracked adjusted crypto crime volume rising from about $123 million in 2020 to more than $103 billion in 2025, while investment scams, including pig-butchering schemes, accounted for 62% of fraud inflows last year.

Generative AI has also become part of scam operations, according to TRM, which recorded a 40% increase in AI-enabled scam activity. The company has tracked uses ranging from deepfake recruitment videos to fabricated account dashboards as criminal groups incorporate the technology into operational infrastructure.

TRM Labs puts APAC policy under Ziqing Ang

With more than a decade of experience across regulation, financial markets and digital assets, Ang enters the position after working on both the government and private-sector sides of financial services.

She began her career at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, spending more than eight years across financial markets development and reserve management. During that period, Ang worked with industry and public-sector participants on initiatives involving Singapore's capital markets and its role as an international financial center.

Her work at MAS later included managing fixed-income portfolios and contributing to macroeconomic and investment research connected with Singapore's official foreign reserves.

After leaving the regulator, Ang joined Sygnum, which describes itself as the world's first regulated digital asset bank, as vice president of business development. Her responsibilities there included supporting digital asset adoption among institutional and accredited investors.

Ang most recently served as chief business officer at Bright Point International Digital Assets, part of BPI Financial Group, where she led development of its over-the-counter brokerage operations. Her work covered licensing as well as the institutional infrastructure needed to support the business.
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Ari Redbord, TRM Labs' global head of policy, said Ang's experience moving between the public and private sectors would support the company's work with authorities and institutions in Asia-Pacific.

"This is a moment when the public and private sectors must come together to get ahead of the threats emerging in this region," Redbord said. "Ziqing brings deep expertise and experience working across both the public and private sectors, and the credibility to bring regulators and industry together around this work."

Hiring officials with regulatory backgrounds has also become common among digital asset companies expanding in Asia. In June, crypto.news previously reported that former TRM executive Angela Ang joined BitGo as managing director for APAC and president of BitGo Singapore after previously spending more than a decade at MAS.

Singapore tightens crypto licensing and oversight

Ang's appointment also comes while Singapore continues to enforce its licensing rules for digital asset firms.

In May, MAS revoked Bsquared Technology's Major Payment Institution license after identifying weaknesses in risk management, conflicts of interest and outsourcing arrangements. The regulator also found that the company had provided false or misleading information during its license application and subsequent inspection, with the Bsquared license revocation taking effect on May 14.

The regulator has separately continued using its Investor Alert List to identify companies that consumers could mistakenly view as regulated.

Bybit was added to the list in June, with MAS stating that the exchange was not licensed or regulated to provide services to users in Singapore.

Hyperliquid was also added to the list during the same month. The decentralized trading platform responded that it had never claimed to hold a Singapore license or authorization, while MAS clarified that inclusion on the list was not itself an enforcement action.

By July, Bitget had issued its own notice confirming that it did not hold a license, approval, registration or authorization from MAS and did not offer or target services to people in Singapore. The company also said Singapore remained a restricted market for its platform.

Ang said Asia-Pacific is reaching an important point in the development of rules covering both AI and digital assets.

"Asia-Pacific is at an important stage in how it regulates technology in the age of AI, and the decisions made over the next few years will shape the safety of the ecosystem," she said.

"I've spent my career moving between regulators and the institutions they oversee, and I've seen how much good regulation and strong partnerships between the public and private sector can do."

Crypto scam compounds remain an APAC enforcement target

TRM's figures on investment fraud come as authorities continue pursuing scam networks operating across Southeast Asia, where pig-butchering operations have been linked to large compounds and human trafficking.

In March, the FBI and Thai police froze about $580 million in cryptocurrency and seized around 8,000 phones during a cross-border fraud operation targeting Southeast Asian pig-butchering groups accused of defrauding U.S. victims.

Authorities said organized groups operating industrial-scale compounds have used fake cryptocurrency investment platforms to obtain funds from victims. Some operations have also relied on trafficking victims who were forced to participate in online scams.

A separate investigation opened in India in July after reports that Indian nationals had been trafficked to Myanmar and forced to work inside crypto scam compounds. Police in Maharashtra registered a criminal case after the wife of a 24-year-old man said he had been taken near the Thailand-Myanmar border after accepting what he believed was a job in Bangkok.

Law enforcement cases have also documented how funds from pig-butchering schemes move through both conventional banking channels and cryptocurrency.

Chinese national Jingliang Su was sentenced to 46 months in a U.S. prison in January after pleading guilty in connection with a network that prosecutors said transferred more than $36.9 million from U.S. bank accounts before converting funds into USDT and sending the assets to Cambodia. Prosecutors said 174 victims had been targeted through social media, text messages and dating platforms and directed toward fake investment services that displayed fabricated profits.

Fake dashboards resembling legitimate trading platforms have also appeared in enforcement actions involving scam compounds. U.S. authorities previously seized a fraudulent website linked to an operation in Burma that displayed false deposits and fabricated investment returns while directing some victims toward malicious mobile applications.

TRM said generative AI is increasing the range of tools available to fraud networks, with deepfakes and fabricated interfaces becoming part of scam operations instead of remaining experimental uses of the technology.

TRM Labs expands its APAC compliance team

Alongside Ang's appointment, TRM has been building out its regional policy and compliance personnel as governments develop digital asset frameworks.

The company appointed former MAS regulator Claudia Hui as Head of Compliance Advisory for APAC last month. TRM said the hire formed part of its expansion across policy, compliance and go-to-market operations in the region.

Ang said her new role would involve working directly with regulators, law enforcement agencies and industry participants as those frameworks develop. "TRM's focus on building a safer world is the kind of work I want to be part of, and I'm looking forward to working with regulators, law enforcement, and industry across the region to support responsible innovation," she said.
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