Consensus Hong Kong 2026 brings together global leaders across digital assets, blockchain, AI, and institutional finance at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from February 11 to 12, 2026. 

As a firm dedicated to the crypto and digital asset sector, Sphere State is proud to be part of this industry gathering once again. Our senior team will be present throughout the event and we’ll be happy to talk to you – Just drop by booth 4604.  

 

Connect With Sphere State at Booth 4604 

If you are attending Consensus, we invite you to visit Booth 4604 to meet our senior professionals and discuss the challenges facing digital asset businesses. 

Whether you are strengthening governance, preparing for institutional growth, managing regulatory exposure, or enhancing incident readiness, we welcome thoughtful, confidential discussions focused on practical outcomes. 

 

Built for High-Stakes Environments. 

Digital assets are entering a new phase of adoption. As the sector matures, expectations around security, transparency, and operational resilience continue to rise. Organizations can no longer rely on reactive measures. Leadership teams are expected to anticipate threats, protect stakeholder confidence, and respond decisively when incidents occur. 

Sphere State was built to support exactly these moments. Our work sits at the intersection of intelligence, investigation, and strategic advisory, helping clients operate with greater clarity and control in an increasingly scrutinized environment. 

 

About us 

Pre-Launch Planning and Risk Strategy 

We help virtual asset projects, platforms, and financial participants identify vulnerabilities before launch. Our advisory covers threat modeling, wallet architecture considerations, jurisdictional exposure, and incident-response preparedness. 

 

Virtual Asset Tracing and Recovery 

Leveraging advanced blockchain analytics and cross-border intelligence capabilities, we trace illicit asset flows, support freeze actions, and assist recovery efforts across multiple jurisdictions. 

 

Litigation and Dispute Support 
Trusted by leading law firms, we provide expert analysis, evidentiary support, and specialist insight into matters involving fraud, insolvency, asset misappropriation, and complex digital asset disputes. 

 

Crisis and Incident Management 
When critical events occur, speed matters. Our rapid-response capability supports organizations facing cyber-attacks, insider threats, asset theft, and other time-sensitive situations where decisive action is essential. 

 

We look forward to engaging with those who recognize that a proactive risk strategy is now fundamental to long-term success in crypto. 

Event Details 

Event: Consensus Hong Kong 2026 
Dates: February 11 to 12, 2026 
Location: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre 
Sphere State Booth: 4604 

 

Visit Booth 4604 to connect with Sphere State and explore how we can help your organization navigate risk, protect assets, and operate with confidence in a high-risk digital landscape. 

The post Sphere State at Consensus Hong Kong 2026. Let’s Connect. appeared first on Sphere State Group.

 

As digital assets continue to mature, the risks surrounding fraud, regulatory exposure, and asset loss are becoming more complex. Consensus is the world’s longest running and most influential gathering of the crypto and Web3 community, and we are proud to be part of this important conversation for the second consecutive year. We will be on-site both in Hong Kong and in Miami.   

Why Visit Sphere State at Booth 4604 

Because our CEO Bjorn and senior partners Ilya and Jussi will all be at the booth, happy to field your questions. Sphere State supports organizations operating in high-risk digital asset environments. We work with exchanges, institutional investors, Web3 companies, law firms, and regulators. We’ve been in crypto for 10+ years, and we’ve seen it all: the good the bad and the ridiculous.  

If digital assets are part of your business, visit Booth 4604 for practical, confidential discussions about real-world challenges and solutions. 

Building a Safer Digital Asset Ecosystem 

As our CEO Bjorn Wahlstrom likes to say: At Sphere State, we believe effective risk management requires multiple layers of protection across technical, operational, legal, and strategic domains. Sponsoring Consensus Hong Kong reflects our commitment to helping the digital asset industry mature responsibly with stronger safeguards and faster response when incidents occur. 

We look forward to connecting with industry leaders, developers, legal professionals, and compliance teams who share this vision. 

At Sphere State Group, we specialize in critical defense systems for crypto ventures, investors, and legal teams: 

 

Pre-Launch Planning & Risk Strategy 

Proactive advisory for virtual-asset projects, exchanges, and issuers to identify risks before launch, including threat modelling, wallet architecture review, jurisdictional exposure, and incident-response readiness. 

 

Virtual Asset Tracing & Recovery 

Advanced on-chain and off-chain forensic investigations to trace illicit flows, identify freezable assets, and execute coordinated recovery strategies across jurisdictions. 

 

Litigation & Dispute Support 

We are a trusted partner to law firms in crypto-related disputes, insolvency, and fraud matters, providing expert analysis, evidentiary support, and global expert-witness services. 

 

Crisis & Incident Management 

24/7 rapid-response capability for ransomware attacks, asset theft, insider compromise, and other critical incidents. 

Event Details 

• Event: Consensus Hong Kong 

• Dates: February 10 to 12, 2026 

• Location: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre 

• Sphere State Booth: 4604

   

Stop by Booth 4604 to meet our team and discuss how we can support your organization in an increasingly complex digital asset environment. 

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The post Bjorn Wahlstrom delivers a course on Crypto Transaction Monitoring appeared first on Sphere State Group.

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The Special Projects Committee support new Chamber initiatives. Its focus this year is securing a sound vetting process of new SwedCham members as well as organizing a meeting place for professionals and member companies doing or wanting to do business in Hong Kong.

For further information about how you as a member can contribute to the Special Projects Committee, please contact SwedCham at chamber@swedcham.com.hk

Committee members:

• Co-chair: Gabriella Augustsson (Swedcham HK)

Read full article here.

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The choice of dated content was deliberate — to help demonstrate that crypto-sphere was already complex several years ago. It was also a deliberate choice to avoid relationship charts because this format is not suitable when we are dealing with disparate blockchains.

Crypto investigators today are trying to move at the speed of change in blockchain development, coin taxonomy, the rise and fall of exchanges, and fraud typologies. Here’s a great report on this, by the way: https://www.elliptic.co/hubfs/Typologies-2022-Preventing%20Financial%20Crime%20in%20Crypto-NH.pdf

My point is that complexity in the crypto-sphere is a real threat to successful investigative outcomes.

Complexity on Blockchains

Let’s say you’ve successfully navigated your way to wallets and transactions of interest. Unless these are connected with exchanges, fiat off-ramps, or other known entities, information about humans behind wallets and transactions of interest is obscure by design on any blockchain. Even more complexity is added when transactions pass through so-called mixers and blenders (also known as tumblers) — wallets or collections of wallets receiving and sending hundreds of thousands of transactions. In the case of mixers, the incoming coin is not linked with the outgoing coin — basically a crypto-hawala.

Complexity in our tools

While crypto investigators have multiple products which could be aimed at the totality of the crypto-sphere with the objective of uncovering meaningful intelligence, we are often held back by lack of user-centric design.

For example, in order to arrive at basic answers using current on-chain investigation products, analysts have to spend quite a bit of time manipulating the user interface. Product designers, therefore, have an opportunity to help automate basic and even more advanced search techniques to help optimize their products for efficiency and effectiveness. They can also give users ways of creating their own automations. All this is quite achievable and the tech can certainly support it. Investigators just need to collaborate with product designers a bit more.

“Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.”
― Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

Solving Complexity

So how do investigators work through this complexity? There are two basic principles:

1. Catch transactions on exchanges, wallets belonging to known entities, and fiat off-ramps. Then, in cooperation with a good lawyer, seek disclosure about receiving wallets and bank accounts.
2. Find and follow leads in the physical world. There are instances when crypto-fraud victims have contacts and events in their life which may help solve the case. For example, a few victims have been lured into scams via messaging apps, meaning a fraudster engaged in direct communication with the victim. If victims could be lured, so can the fraudsters. At the very minimum, fraudsters almost always leave a trail in the physical world.

To conclude, there are ways of reducing complexity in crypto investigations. You can do so by carefully assessing the user-friendliness and utility of the tools for on-chain analysis, looking for points of possible disclosure along transaction paths, and extending your investigations into the physical world.

Read full article here.

The post Ilya Umanskiy offers ideas for crypto investigations appeared first on Sphere State Group.

Carol Dweck wrote a book on growth mindset many years ago. Her work on psychology of motivation and success is the gold standard in education and organizational development. It is time for us to apply the growth mindset rubric to due diligence (DD) because many recent scandals like FTX, Theranos, and Frank highlight the need for significant improvement.

Sadly, DD service has been severely commoditized and is subject to ever mounting pressure on cost and turnaround time for each project. Instead of statistics to prove my point, I’ll offer an example.

A few months ago, while conducting a fraud investigation, our team stumbled on a pile of due diligence records from a major bank associated with our subject. Turned out the bank’s DD team rubber-stamped a bunch of documents provided by the subject in advance of opening a business account. What was missed is the subject’s obvious effort to impersonate a prominent CEO with the same name.

Why did this happen? Well, a few things come to mind:

• Lack of competence
• High workload and pressure to move each case forward
• Lack of quality control

Of course, mistakes happen. However, the scandals mentioned earlier and many others are pointing to a systemic problem. To summarize this problem, we accept that DD is generally high-volume, pressure-cooker, low-standards service which can neither attract nor retain good talent. Therefore, we have a “you get what you get and you don’t get upset” situation. The only question today is, “What is the cost of poor DD?”. No clear answer here because the “cost” is a combination of reputational damage, regulatory actions, and (no surprise) financial losses. While it may be possible to quantify the first two, the last one alone continues to mount if we monitor current lawsuits, the size of original investments into fraudulent enterprises, and applied penalties. On the reputation front, FTX alone roped in global investment brands, multiple celebrities, and even a sports arena. As a result, DD itself got a huge slap.

So, what’s the solution?

Just like the problem, the solution is complex. Carol Dweck’s work on growth mindset can inform us. Here’s a model to consider:

1. Assume that continual improvement in DD is necessary and possible.
2. Following step 1, change from accepting status-quo to the principle of “no yet”, where all current DD standards and practices will be subjected to critical analysis and positive transformation. This will require reduction of workloads and redesign of task rubrics along with subsequent quality control to help reduce errors / omissions and improve each deliverable. The risk of slower, more deliberate, and more expensive work should be willingly accepted by clients requesting DD because the faster alternative will cost them a lot more down the line in reputational, regulatory, and financial impact.
3. DD should be treated as a profession and taught at both undergraduate and graduate levels with additional investments into ongoing research. Without this, talent will continue to be scarce and DD’s reputation mediocre.
4. Partner with organizations like ISO to develop a meaningful standard and coordinate adoption through regulation and industry organizations.
5. Begin active re-training of DD practitioners to better enable critical thinking and investigative skills, as well as knowledge of best practices and resources.

Read full article here.

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The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is a traditional harvest celebration. Held on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar with the full moon at night, it falls on late September or early October. Mooncakes, traditionally eaten during this festival, are probably the most famous part of the tradition.

This year, the holiday falls on Tuesday 21st of September so please note that our offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai are closed on following days:

• SSG (Shanghai): Closed Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st of September
• SSG (Hong Kong): Closed Wednesday 22nd of September

Sphere State Group would like to wish all our friends, partners and clients a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

The post Happy Mid-Autumn Festival 2021! appeared first on Sphere State Group.

We are delighted to announce that Ms. Rebecca Yuan has joined SSG and Supply Chain Advisory practice at our Shanghai office.

Rebecca is an experienced investigator and a member of CICPA (The Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants) with 3 years of audit experience as an auditor in international companies. She is familiar with both Chinese and European accounting standards, and has over 7 years of relevant risk assessment experience as senior risk assessment manager at several financial institutions, responsible for the risk assessments and control of the investments of a number of major listed companies in mainland China.

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