Strengthening Trust in Crypto with the Power of Identity Intelligence
Crypto platforms today operate in one of the most demanding and challenging digital environments.
On the compliance side, UK cryptoasset businesses may be subject to strict regulatory requirements, including identity verification, AML and KYC obligations, Travel Rule requirements and more. On the conversion side, end users expect fast and seamless onboarding with instant access to their accounts and digital wallets so that they can start trading. A key challenge for firms is maintaining strong trust and compliance without slowing down the user experience.
Reinhard Hochrieser, SVP of product and technology at Jumio, explored these issues during CryptoUK’s webinar, ‘Strengthening Trust in Crypto with the Power of Identity Intelligence’. The full webinar recording is embedded below, followed by a summary of some of the key points discussed.
Why Identity Matters in Crypto
For UK crypto firms subject to AML and KYC requirements, it is essential to know their users and verify their identities, both to comply with regulatory requirements and to protect their platform. But every additional step in the onboarding process can create friction. Users want things to happen fast and seamlessly, and if it takes too long, they abandon the process.
According to research cited by Jumio, crypto exchanges were hit with $930 million in fines in 2025 — more than banks and other types of firms combined. Other research cited by Jumio suggests that 70% of crypto users abandon the onboarding process before making a deposit if the experience feels too slow. This can mean lost revenue for firms.
So how can firms close this gap without compromising compliance, particularly when some risks may not become visible until later in the customer journey?
The Changing Fraud Landscape
Reinhard described how the fraud landscape has changed significantly over the past decade. Back then, it was relatively easy for a trained analyst to spot anomalies, such as font changes and holograms that weren’t manipulated correctly on an altered ID, or cases where fraudsters would print out a selfie or document and hold it up in front of the camera. Because these approaches were manual, clumsy and required hands-on effort and some technical skill, such attempts were typically more limited in scale.
Now, with the explosion of generative AI over the last couple of years, fraud has become easier to execute, more sophisticated and increasingly industrialised. He explained that visual inspection of submitted images and selfies alone is increasingly insufficient for detecting sophisticated fraud. He highlighted how generative AI has made it possible for fraudsters to create realistic synthetic content at significantly greater speed and scale.
He also identified synthetic identities as a key fraud vector in the AI era. A fraudster might take a photo of a legitimate document and then replace the data elements with stolen data from the dark web or with fictional data. This technique can be used to bypass identity checks through video injection, where a fraudster spoofs or mimics the camera feed from a smartphone or computer.
According to Jumio, fraud rings are increasingly conducting organised synthetic identity attacks. When successful on one platform, these attacks can be scaled across multiple platforms and vendors before moving into other industries. In Jumio’s view, this means that checking an ID once at onboarding is no longer sufficient; firms need visibility across the identity lifecycle.
The Next Evolution: Identity Intelligence
So what does an effective defence layer look like? Reinhard argued that, to truly understand the risk associated with an individual, trust can’t stop at KYC. Instead, firms should evolve from identity verification to what Jumio describes as ‘identity intelligence’, which is based on three pillars:
- Continuous: Evaluating identity over time, from onboarding through ongoing monitoring. Reverify their identity with a selfie whenever there’s a high-risk activity such as changing their password or transferring money.
- Connected: Linking signals across companies, platforms, accounts, devices, and transactions so that each new onboarding attempt doesn’t happen in a silo.
- Contextual: Assessing whether an activity makes sense in context. Is a daily withdrawal normal? Hourly? Understanding the context is essential for spotting anomalies.
According to Jumio, combining these signals can reveal patterns that provide a more complete assessment of the risk associated with an individual, helping firms spot fraud rings creating thousands of accounts to exploit promotions or for money laundering, as well as making it easier to detect synthetic identities and account takeover attempts.
Jumio’s research shows that identity intelligence uncovers roughly 28% more fraud attacks — without creating more friction for legitimate users. The company says legitimate users can also benefit from a much more streamlined experience. Under a traditional verification model, users may have to go through identity verification steps each time they open an account at a new company. With this approach, identities can become reusable, so users can onboard at one company and then simply take a selfie when they want to onboard at another company.
Under Jumio’s approach, if the user isn’t found in the identity database, the process falls back to full identity verification. Jumio’s consented identity database contains tens of millions of people, allowing roughly 60% of those found within the database to use a streamlined verification process rather than completing full identity verification again. The company says this can significantly improve conversion rates while maintaining applicable compliance controls.
Key Takeaways from Jumio
Traditional identity verification is now only one piece of the puzzle. Modern identity intelligence solutions can deliver improvements in key areas:
- Conversions: Using just a selfie can enable faster onboarding and lower drop-off rates.
- Fraud detection: Taking multiple signals into consideration helps detect patterns like account farming, synthetic identities, and account takeovers.
- Compliance: Evaluating identity over time and across a network, rather than in a silo, can support more accurate assessments and greater confidence in risk decisions.
As Reinhard explained during the webinar, the tension between revenue and compliance objectives does not necessarily have to be a zero-sum game. In Jumio’s view, identity intelligence can help firms balance commercial objectives with strong compliance and a better user experience.
