Within a few years, a younger generation of financial services customers are going to be able to walk into a bank and gain access to credit products, savings accounts and investments that can host both crypto and fiat assets. In fact, the inroads that will allow for all of this to happen are already breaking ground.

You probably already know that Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange based out of San Francisco, is now the first-ever cryptocurrency business in the United States to become a bank. For now, being an officially chartered bank means that Kraken will be able to offer more banking and funding options to existing customers. It also means Kraken Financial is going to be able to operate in multiple jurisdictions without having to deal with state-by-state compliance plans.

Kraken is currently working with Silvergate Bank to offer SWIFT and FedWire funding options to U.S. customers. More and more of these kinds of partnerships will become the status quo in the near future. That’s why now is the time for traditional banks that are lagging behind to start paying attention.

Silvergate Bank is a step ahead of the rest at the moment. The company boasts 880 digital asset companies as clients. Those clients have deposited more than $1.5 billion with the bank. That’s still a small amount of money relative to the market capitalizations of most major banks or even most major cryptocurrencies for that matter. That said, keep in mind that major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Gemini are now customers of JPMorgan, even though CEO Jamie Dimon routinely denounced the value of Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies just a few short years ago.

Consumers will soon define a “full service” bank as one that offers financial services in both crypto and fiat. The time to start acquiring the necessary tools of the crypto banking trade is right now. Banks need to start adapting or get left behind. Make no mistake about it.

But what tools do they actually need?

Blockchain forensics tools

A crime scene investigator can use a black light or fingerprint powder to uncover all kinds of evidence. The idea that Bitcoin or blockchains are completely private has been dispelled again and again. In fact, blockchain-based currencies are much more open to investigative methods than fiat currencies. It is certainly possible to uncover the origins of transactions. In order for banks to do that with cryptocurrency, they will need blockchain explorers and risk scoring tools that can go a step further than the current publicly provided services.

Those forensics tools already exist, and they allow investigators to follow digital paper trails across addresses, wallets, transactions, blockchains and other digital entities, using techniques like clustering and heuristics. Companies in this space are developing their own proprietary searching algorithms designed to detect the origins of concealed funds and unmask criminals.

Remember, traditional fiat is still the currency of choice for money laundering professionals. Cryptocurrency is in its nascent days and will emerge as a powerful force in reducing the money laundering risk around the world.

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詳見全文Full Text： cointelegraph.com

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