Australia'sfinancial intelligence unit yesterday (Tuesday) published three companiondocuments to its 2024 national risk assessments, naming artificial intelligenceand virtual assets as new accelerants reshaping money laundering, terrorismfinancing and proliferation financing.The releaselands seven weeks before tranche 2 obligations under the reformed Anti-MoneyLaundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act take effect, sweeping anestimated 80,000 to 90,000 new entities into AUSTRAC's perimeter. Thefull breakdown, with charts and methodology, is available on the FM Intelligence portal.Tranche 2 Adds Lawyers,Accountants and Real Estate to AUSTRAC's PerimeterThe reformbrings real estate professionals, lawyers, accountants, conveyancers, dealersin precious metals and additional virtual asset service providers into theregime. Norton RoseFulbright estimates the change adds 80,000 to 90,000 reporting entities to theroughly 17,000 currently regulated, a roughly fivefold expansion.Theexpansion builds on years of compliance pressure on existing licensecategories, including AUSTRAC's earlier action against more than 50remittance and crypto exchange providers for reporting breaches. Existingreporting entities have been bound by the reformed AML/CTF Act since March 31,while tranche 2 obligations begin on July 1.AI Joins the LaunderingToolkit Across All Three UpdatesFor thefirst time, AUSTRAC treats AI as a cross-cutting accelerant rather than asingle channel. The moneylaundering update lists identity fabrication, fake document generation, scamproceeds laundering and transaction structuring designed to mimic legitimatecustomer behavior among the AI-enabled methods now in play.Theproliferation financing update names four use cases by sanctioned-state actors:automating shell-company networks, generating fictitious entities, producingfalsified trade documentation and optimizing sanctions evasion. The patternaligns with Sumsub's Identity Fraud Report, which logged a 180% year-over-yearrise in multi-layered fraud combining deepfakes and AI-generated identities.$2 Billion Bybit TheftPoints to the Crypto Visibility GapAUSTRACdisclosed that DPRK-linked actors stole more thanUS$2 billion in crypto from Bybit in 2025, calling it the largest known instance of state-linked cryptorevenue generation globally. The agencysaid virtual asset service provider obligations are concentrated on fiat on-and off-ramps, leaving visibility gaps for crypto-native and decentralizedactivity, a concern the Bank for International Settlements has also raised on USD stablecoins.Theregulator has acted on similar concerns at home. AUSTRAC ordered Binance Australia to appoint anexternal auditor inAugust 2025, directed audits at Airwallex and MHITS earlier this year, and fined Revolut Australia AU$187,800 for late reporting. Fullcharts, risk-rating revisions and methodology across all three AUSTRAC updatesare available in the FM Intelligence analysis.This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.