A report preview from Chainalysis, released May 27, shows that crypto firms entering the market in 2026 are starting with tougher compliance settings than many older firms used five years ago. The firm said nearly 47% of organizations onboarded in 2026 now use alerting standards that would have ranked in the top 10% for strictness in 2020, measured by alert severity, trigger sensitivity, and minimum dollar floors for indirect illicit exposure.
"Standard compliance configurations today would have been considered industry-leading just five years ago," Chainalysis noted. However, the report draws a clear line between direct and indirect exposure. Direct exposure covers funds from a known illicit source; indirect exposure covers funds passing through one or more intermediary wallets before reaching a platform.
Chainalysis said direct monitoring has grown uniform across regions, but the gap sits in indirect monitoring. For ransomware, fraud shops, scams, darknet markets, and sanctioned jurisdictions, indirect thresholds often sit 10 to 20 times above direct thresholds.
Banks keep tighter alert floors
Traditional financial institutions maintain lower alerting floors than crypto exchanges. For indirect exposure to non-illicit flows, crypto exchanges set average alerting minimums at $950, compared with $150 for traditional banks. The gap narrows for illicit flows: exchanges set alerts from $100, while banks set the floor at $55. That difference matters as more banks test stablecoins, tokenized assets, and crypto custody.
Compliance pressure builds across crypto markets
The report aligns with a wider compliance push across digital asset markets. As previously reported, Polymarket engaged Chainalysis in April to monitor insider trading and manipulation on its prediction markets after monthly volumes surpassed $7 billion. Separate coverage showed rising pressure around cross-chain AML gaps, Binance monitoring duties, stablecoin controls, and North Korean hacking activity. Chainalysis reported that North Korean-linked actors stole more than $2 billion in crypto in 2025, adding urgency to stronger fund-flow monitoring systems.