Why this publication exists
The transaction graph tells you where money went. It cannot tell you who wanted it moved, or why a state looked away. That gap is the beat.
Every payment that crosses a border crosses three perimeters at once.
The first is drawn by states: sanctions regimes, export controls, the lists of names and wallets that make some counterparties untouchable. The second is drawn by regulators around firms: licensing, AML obligations, the compliance perimeter that decides which companies may touch money at all. The third is older than both — the geopolitical boundary, the line between blocs and jurisdictions that finance has always crossed faster than diplomacy.
All three perimeters leak. The leak is what this publication covers.
Why me
I sell into this market for a living. My practice, Waniek Strategy & Growth, does business development in blockchain compliance and fintech across the DACH region — which means I spend my weeks talking to the people who have to operate these perimeters: compliance officers staring down the EU’s MiCA hard stop, Swiss institutions on a completely different FINMA clock, investigators trying to connect on-chain traces to off-chain reality.
Before that I managed institutional clients at BlackRock under MiFID II, held postings with the Austrian Federal Chancellery and EU delegations in Asia, and trained as an anthropologist and political scientist. The unifying thread, visible only in hindsight: how institutions behave when rules, money and technology collide.
Most writing about this space comes from journalists (who don’t sell into it), academics (who don’t operate in it), or vendors (who can’t be candid about it). The field view is missing. This is an attempt to supply it.
What to expect
Perimeter Reports — essays on sanctions networks, enforcement typologies, and the regulatory calendar reshaping who can move money in Europe. The Regulatory Clock — a maintained timeline of the dated, non-optional obligations landing on DACH and EU firms. Machines on the Money Trail — what AI actually changes in investigations, monitoring and the economics of compliance. Field Notes — how deals in regulated crypto really happen, counterparties always anonymised.
One essay every two weeks, sourced and dated. Company self-reported numbers are hedged as “X states”. When I don’t know, I’ll say so in print — it is the cheapest credibility purchase available.