Elliptic Launches Tool to Connect Banks with Cryptocurrency Exchanges

Elliptic Discovery collects details of more than 200 crypto exchanges to enable banks to manage risks associated with crypto.

London-based cryptocurrency compliance firm Elliptic has launched a new tool that allows banks to work more closely with crypto exchanges.

Dubbed Elliptic Discovery, the product collects detailed profiles of more than 200 global crypto exchanges to enable banks to manage risks associated with crypto transactions, Business Insider reports Dec. 11.

Elliptic Discovery includes data collected since 2013

Designed specifically for banks, Elliptic Discovery reportedly provides compliance teams with necessary insights to identify flows of funds on crypto assets and assess risks including money laundering. The tool is reportedly based on Elliptic's data that was collected since 2013 and offers a wide range of identifiers and risk indicators in terms of exposure to crypto-assets through exchanges, the report notes.

James Smith, CEO and co-founder at Elliptic, noted that the new tool is created to address the existing lack of visibility into the crypto-asset ecosystem by banking institutions.

Banks' lack of visibility to crypto ecosystem has caused “zero-tolerance”

According to Smith, this lack of access to the crypto industry has resulted in “zero-tolerance” to the new asset class and frustrated customers, while banks “have remained blind to the actual risks posed by their exposure to crypto-assets.”

Smith pointed out that there are different types of crypto currency exchanges, which would be taken into account by the banks while assessing the risks. He said:

“Elliptic Discovery changes that by enabling banks to shine a light on their customers' crypto-asset activity and take a risk-based approach [...] Not all crypto-asset exchanges are alike and Elliptic Discovery will allow banks to make this distinction and seize the opportunity to work more closely with these businesses, based on an evidence-based assessment of the risk.”

Elliptic Discovery to help China and India alleviate regulatory scepticism towards crypto

Elliptic has not specified which banks have already signed up for Discovery or expressed interest in doing so in the report.

Tom Robinson, co-founder and chief scientist at Elliptic, said in an email to Cointelegraph that the company has seen significant interest from banks around the world. Robinson expressed hope that Elliptic Discovery could help alleviate regulatory pressure to crypto in some jurisdictions. He said:

“In countries such as China and India, where the regulatory environment severely restricts the activity of crypto exchanges, we hope that the availability of tools such as Elliptic Discovery will prompt regulators to reevaluate these restrictive policies.

Elliptic is a partner of major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance

Backed by Japanese banking giant SBI Group and Santander's venture capital arm Santander InnoVentures, Elliptic is a major global crypto forensics and analysis firm. The company is known for providing its services to American crypto exchange Coinbase and has been a partner of Binance, one of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges, since May 2019. In November 2019, Elliptic issued a report tying about  $400 million worth XRP tokens to illegal transactions.

Earlier this year, Elliptic refuted allegations that it was collecting and selling clients’ user data to third parties for financial gain.