documented<\/a> that most illicit actors in 2026 move assets through bridges and privacy tools within minutes. The structural problem: retail bank AML sees fiat, blockchain analytics tools see the crypto side, and neither sees the bridge.<\/p>\n\u201cNo one sees the bridge,\u201d Levy said. \u201cSince ThetaRay\u2019s AI is agnostic to the rail, it provides the connective tissue that monitors the behavioral fingerprint of the individual across both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
ThetaRay recently flagged a UK retail customer declared as a packer, an occupation not associated with high-volume financial activity. The system found she had received over \u00a3134,000 from nearly 40 counterparties, including nine companies with no previous history, then executed regular crypto purchases multiple times a month, often on consecutive days.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile traditional rule-based systems would have classified these as isolated transfers, our AI connected the dots and flagged them as an unlicensed crypto exchange or illicit investment portal,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n
Crypto.news has reported on AML becoming the dominant enforcement axis in crypto in 2026, with fines exceeding $900 million in the first half of 2025 alone.<\/p>\n
How criminals use chain-hopping to reset their financial history<\/h3>\n
Levy describes L2s and blockchain bridges as reset buttons, resetting the financial history of funds at each hop. By the time a legacy bank flags a fiat withdrawal as suspicious, the money has already moved through multiple chains.<\/p>\n
\u201cCriminals understand that a retail bank\u2019s AML system isn\u2019t talking to a Solana explorer in real time,\u201d Levy said. \u201cThey reset their financial history by leveraging the complexity of L2s and bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crypto.news has tracked CertiK research showing AML enforcement overtook securities classification as the primary risk axis for crypto businesses in 2026.<\/p>\n
What the next two years will demand from banks and regulators<\/h3>\n
Levy\u2019s outlook for the next 12 to 24 months is a structural shift he calls \u201cconverged monitoring,\u201d collapsing separate Retail AML and Crypto Risk teams into a single AI-driven overlay that tracks an individual\u2019s behaviour across all transaction types.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving separate teams for Retail AML and Crypto Risk will no longer be a viable strategy,\u201d Levy said. The overlay he foresees maintains a risk profile for each individual continuously, not just when they cross a monitored threshold on a single rail.<\/p>\n
Crypto.news has covered the US Treasury proposing AML rules for stablecoin issuers under the GENIUS Act, treating payment stablecoin operators as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.<\/p>\n
Levy sees the direction as unambiguous. \u201cIf there are any blind spots between fiat and crypto over the next year, they will be viewed as governance failures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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