As the crypto industry matures, pragmatism and common sense are slowly creeping into the idealistic, messy business of blockchain tech.
For years, Crypto founders have declared that they are rebuilding the financial system. And even though the focus is on big ideas and innovative financial engineering, many crypto products and services remain off limits to regulated organizations.
As banks, OTC desks, and institutional investors enter the space, they find the core infrastructure of serious finance either missing, or lacking the compliance tools that allow them to fully participate.
Telegram and X may be the preferred communication channels of native crypto, but institutions need more than available messages, constant phishing attempts, and management of countless channels with strong hackable addresses. JPMorgan is being fined $200 million by regulators in 2021 for the use of platforms and personal accounts, while scammers have become adept at Using them for thefts.
Crypto communication platforms are not eligible for compliance
Tie, a data provider of digital class of institutional property, set about solving the issue of secure crypto communication, integrating with systems such as the global relay already used for back office compliance between financial players.
“We’ve been so busy addressing the big pain points in the system that we’ve sometimes forgotten about the basics,” said Josh Frank, CEO of The Tie. “Institutions can’t get compliance, they don’t expect that the person talking in a telegram chat is really the person they say they are. They have rules, they have a duty to maintain, and the existing crypto channels were never built with those requirements.”
According to Frank, the new messaging solution, bridge, addresses all the needs of institutions looking to be part of the digital asset economy.
“There is nothing wrong with WhatsApp or Telegram for most users as long as they are careful, but for institutions we need to build a communication platform that does not suck compliance.”
Melvin Deng, CEO of QCP in Singapore, told Cointelegraph that “every regulated institution operates under clear obligations—to know who they are dealing with, to keep records, and to ensure that a communication is both followed and heard. In crypto, the basics have been missing for a long time. They are not afterthoughts but defaults.”
Starting with email domain verification, strictly know your business (KYB) and verified identity to eliminate bad actors, The bridge was designed To open up B2B messaging for industry participants worldwide.
Frank notes that managing teams across multiple communication channels has proven a major headache for compliant organizations. “You have 50 channels with each of your counterparts,” he said, “and each of them must be depopulated and repopulated every time someone leaves your business. Each one is a potential liability, so we built a solution that allows for centralized team management, including bulk reassignments of former team members with their history, directly to new members.
An audit log for all blockchain transactions
That history includes automatic auditing of transactions between counterparties. “The platform maintains a complete log of transactions, and with verified and timed completion notifications, arrival confirmations – the entire process is designed for compliance,” said Frank. “And that continues seamlessly at the organization level, so that the events of individual users feed directly into a central tracking of all transactions.”
He also noted that Bridge allows for access to TIE’s privacy-focused data platform directly within the app, allowing users to search for information in context using AI. “Imagine you’re traveling to Singapore for Token2049. You can ask the bridge to load custodians, OTC desks, and prime brokers based in Singapore who have raised money in the last two years, and have at least $10m in total funding. Then you can message the parties directly within the app.”
“You can also use AI to access market sentiment in real-time, or to discover developer statistics—essentially all of our grade-level data is available.”
The bridge is launching in early 2026 as both a web and desktop app, as well as native iOS and Android apps, and Frank claims that the tie will offer the service at just $5 per month, per user.
“It’s designed to be a no-brainer,” he said. “If you operate in crypto, you need it, so the goal is not to put more barriers. It’s simply to make the space safer, welcome new participants, and keep building the tools that make the backbone of tomorrow’s global financial system.”
