Why we built Cases: A personal note on solving the crypto source of wealth headache

‍By Henry Burrows, Co-Founder of Hoptrail

Six years ago, I found myself in a frustrating position that many crypto investors know all too well. Despite having legitimately earned significant proceeds from cryptocurrency investments, I couldn't buy a property. The bank simply couldn't understand where my money had come from or how to properly assess its source.

This wasn't a unique problem – I soon found it was a systematic failure affecting thousands of crypto investors and the banks trying to serve them. That frustrating experience led me to found Hoptrail, and today I'm excited to share the next chapter of our journey: the launch of Cases, our comprehensive source of wealth analytics platform designed specifically for compliance teams.

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The problem that started it all

My personal experience revealed a much larger issue plaguing the financial services industry. Banks are increasingly exposed to crypto wealth through existing clients and new prospects, yet they're stuck using traditional due diligence methods that simply don't work for digital assets.

Think about it from a compliance team's perspective: a high-net-worth prospect walks in with a substantial crypto portfolio built over a decade of trading. They've used dozens of exchanges, traded across multiple blockchains, held countless different assets, and moved funds between various wallets. How do you piece together this complex financial history using traditional banking tools?

The answer, until now, has been painful manual processes that take weeks or months per case. Compliance teams find themselves drowning in fragmented data, struggling to understand how wealth was actually generated, and facing significant regulatory risks if they get it wrong. Meanwhile, high-value prospects grow frustrated with the delays and take their business to more agile competitors.

Learning from three years of hands-on experience

Since founding Hoptrail in 2021, our team has conducted hundreds of crypto source of wealth reports for private banks, family offices, and regulated institutions across the globe. We've seen firsthand the challenges compliance teams face when trying to onboard crypto customers.

Every report we've written, every client conversation we've had, and every complex case we've solved has taught us something about what compliance teams really need. We've learned that generic blockchain monitoring tools miss the mark – compliance teams don't just need transaction data, they need clear narratives about how wealth was generated, comprehensive risk assessments, and reports that are clear, concise, digestible, and meet regulatory standards.

Most importantly, we've learned that speed matters as much as accuracy. In today's competitive market, banks that can onboard crypto customers in days rather than months will win the business.
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Introducing Cases

Cases represents everything we've learned about crypto compliance over the past three years, packaged into a platform specifically designed for regulated financial institutions. It's not a generic blockchain tool – it's a purpose-built solution for compliance teams who need to understand source of wealth, assess risks, and onboard customers quickly while meeting all regulatory requirements.

Here's what Cases delivers:

• ‍Complete portfolio visibility: See the full picture of a customer's crypto wealth across all wallets, chains, and assets in one dashboard.
• ‍True source of wealth analysis: Understand exactly how customers made their money with detailed breakdowns by token and trading activity, from fiat investments to active staking positions
• ‍Built-in risk management: Every analysis includes financial crime checks, sanctions screening, and counterparty analysis designed to meet regulatory requirements from day one.
• ‍Expert backup when you need it: For complex cases requiring deeper investigation, seamlessly escalate to our team of blockchain experts for bespoke enhanced due diligence reports.
• ‍Continuous post-onboarding monitoring: Real-time data to ensure you stay informed about new risks or sanctions exposure after customers are onboarded.

Real results for real banks

The institutions already using Cases are seeing transformative results. Compliance teams that previously spent weeks or months on crypto due diligence are now completing comprehensive analyses in days. They're confidently onboarding high-value crypto customers they couldn't touch before, while actually reducing the time and resources required for each case.

Built by compliance experts, for compliance teams

Our team brings decades of experience from traditional finance, business intelligence, and crypto analysis. Peter, our CTO, has 14 years in software development for banks and crypto-focused businesses. Nathan brings seven years of experience serving financial institutions in business intelligence and investigations. Björn contributes 29 years in traditional finance and five years in digital assets, including senior roles at Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan's International Private Bank.

This isn't a tech team trying to understand compliance – it's a compliance-focused team that happens to be excellent at building technology.

Embrace crypto with less risk

Crypto wealth isn't going away – it's becoming mainstream. The banks that learn to efficiently and compliantly onboard crypto customers today will capture this growing market. Those that don't will watch high-value prospects walk away to more agile competitors.

Cases represents our commitment to solving this challenge not just for individual cases, but at scale, for the entire financial services industry.
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Ready to transform your crypto compliance?

If your compliance team is spending weeks on crypto due diligence cases, or if you're turning away crypto customers because traditional tools can't handle the complexity, I invite you to see what Cases can do.

We're offering a 14-day free trial so you can experience firsthand how Cases transforms crypto customer onboarding. See for yourself how our platform can save your team weeks per case while strengthening your compliance posture.

‍Start your free trial today to see source of wealth analytics in action.

‍Henry Burrows is the Founder of Hoptrail. Prior to starting the company, he ran the crypto division of a London-based business intelligence firm. Previously he worked in corporate investigations and investment banking in London and Mumbai.

Contact the team at info@hoptrail.io to learn more about Cases.