Skip to content
Schedule A Demo

Behind the MROS Roundtable: Crypto Compliance Insights for 2026

Anastasia Arashkevich

Crypto & Blockchain Expert

March 19, 2026 6 min read

In 2025, over $2.01 billion of stolen funds were routed through cross-chain bridges, accounting for nearly 49.75% of total losses and over 3× more than via mixers and privacy protocols, according to the Global Ledger Laundering Race report.

Going into 2026, this means suspicious activity may appear legitimate when viewed on a single blockchain while actually being part of a cross-chain laundering route.

This shift in laundering tactics was discussed at a roundtable in Bern hosted by Switzerland’s Money Laundering Reporting Office (MROS) and the Crypto Valley Association on 3 March 2026. The event brought together industry representatives to discuss SAR practices, emerging financial crime typologies, and the role of blockchain analytics in investigations.

Yulia Murat, Head of Regulatory Affairs at Global Ledger, shared insights on how these patterns affect investigations and crypto compliance frameworks. Below are the key takeaways and what they mean for AML teams in 2026.

MROS roundtable participants in Bern. Yulia Murat (Global Ledger) is second from the left.
MROS roundtable participants in Bern. Yulia Murat (Global Ledger) is second from the left.
Key Takeaways
  • Cross-chain bridges are increasingly used for laundering, replacing traditional mixers and privacy protocols.
  • Legitimate infrastructure can become a compliance blind spot, as bridges and DeFi tools serve both lawful users and illicit actors.
  • Since laundering paths rarely remain within a single blockchain, investigations now require cross-chain visibility.
  • Real-time monitoring and configurable risk controls are becoming essential for detecting suspicious activity before funds move further.

MROS roundtable sum-up: what compliance teams should watch next in 2026

Cross-chain bridges are becoming a key laundering tool

One of the most important topics discussed during the roundtable was the growing role of cross-chain bridges in crypto laundering schemes.

Traditionally, illicit actors relied heavily on mixers and privacy services to hide the origin of funds. According to Global Ledger research, about 50% of stolen funds (or $763.48 million) were funnelled through mixers and privacy protocols in 2024.

Today, bridges are increasingly leveraged by bad actors for large-scale laundering, mainly due to their cross-chain infrastructure. More than $2.01 billion of stolen funds from 255 hacks in 2025 were routed through cross-chain bridges. It makes bridges one of the most common laundering routes. Why are they so popular among hackers?

Unlike mixers, bridges serve many legitimate purposes, including:

  •  transferring assets between blockchains

  •  accessing DeFi liquidity

  •  moving stablecoins across ecosystems

  •  reducing transaction costs.

Cross-chain bridges dominate stolen funds laundering routes in 2025. Source: Global Ledger.
Cross-chain bridges dominate stolen funds laundering routes in 2025. Source: Global Ledger.
Key insight: Bridge activity often does not automatically trigger alerts in crypto AML monitoring systems. As a result, cross-chain infrastructure creates a compliance blind spot when monitoring relies only on single-chain analysis. This means illicit flows may appear normal unless cross-chain behaviour is analysed in context. 

Laundering is becoming a multi-stage process

Another topic highlighted during the discussion was the increasing complexity of crypto laundering strategies.

Illicit actors rarely move funds directly to CEXs anymore. Instead, they rely on multi-stage transaction paths involving:

  • chains of self-hosted wallets 

  • cross-chain bridges 

  • DeFi protocols 

  • instant swap services 

  • privacy tools. 

Global Ledger research shows that multistage laundering is used in ~99% of hacks, making risk harder to detect. For example, in H1 2025, there were three hacks (2.5%) where all funds went to a VASP or mixer in the first move, while in H2 2025 there were no such cases. This suggests fragmentation increased in H2 2025, with funds split into many smaller transfers. Such staged movements weaken the direct connection between the initial crime and the final cash-out point, making attribution more difficult.

Key insight: Detecting suspicious activity now requires analysing patterns across transaction clusters rather than evaluating single deposits in isolation. Even low-risk transactions may be part of a larger laundering scheme when viewed across multiple hops. This means relying on behavioural signals, cluster analytics, and transaction path analysis, not only transaction-level screening. 

Cooperation between regulators and industry is more important than ever 

The roundtable also highlighted the importance of cooperation between Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) and the crypto industry.

For compliance teams, this cooperation is especially important when it comes to Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) submissions and financial crime investigations. Crypto-related SAR reporting can be challenging due to: 

  • large volumes of blockchain data 

  • complex transaction paths 

  • cross-border financial flows. 

Besides, preparing clear SAR submissions often requires reconstructing transaction paths and providing supporting on-chain evidence, which is where blockchain analytics play a key role. 

Key insight: Strong collaboration between regulators, exchanges, and analytics providers strengthens the effectiveness of crypto AML frameworks and improves the quality of crypto-related SAR reporting. 

How blockchain analytics helps detect crypto money laundering

To address these risks, compliance teams should increasingly rely on blockchain analytics platforms for transaction monitoring and investigations.

Effective crypto compliance frameworks today include: 

  • Real-time transaction monitoring 

  • Behavioural risk signals 

  • Customisable AML alerts 

  • Entity intelligence for counterparties. 

 With the Global Ledger KYT and KYB solution, your compliance team can: 

  • Detect suspicious crypto flows in real time 

  • Trace funds across multiple blockchains 

  • Investigate wallets and entities connected to illicit activity 

  • Generate evidence for SAR reporting and financial crime investigations.

Part of the Global Ledger KYT platform interface.
Part of the Global Ledger KYT platform interface.

Identify crypto laundering risks earlier and respond before funds move deeper into the ecosystem.

Schedule a Demo

 

Conclusion 

As discussed at the MROS roundtable, crypto laundering is shifting toward cross-chain bridges and multistage transaction paths, making illicit flows harder to detect using “single-chain monitoring”. This means suspicious activity may appear legitimate unless cross-chain behaviour and transaction clusters are analysed together.

Global Ledger provides real-time monitoring with AI-powered alerts, fund flow visualisation, and entity exposure reports to identify risks before funds reach your exchange for cash-out. Schedule a demo to see how our platform helps compliance teams detect and investigate suspicious crypto flows in real time. 

Schedule a Demo

 

FAQ

1. What is MROS?

The Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) is Switzerland’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). It receives and analyses Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) submitted by financial institutions and works with law enforcement to investigate potential money laundering and financial crime. 

2. What is a cross-chain?

Cross-chain activity refers to moving digital assets between different blockchains using tools such as bridges, swaps, or interoperability protocols. These transfers allow users to move funds across ecosystems, but they can also complicate investigations because the transaction trail continues across multiple networks. 

3. Why are cross-chain bridges a challenge for crypto AML monitoring?

Cross-chain bridges allow assets to move between different blockchains. While they have legitimate uses, they can also disrupt the visible transaction trail, making it harder for compliance teams to track the origin of funds. Without cross-chain analytics, suspicious activity may appear normal when analysed on a single blockchain. 

4. How Global Ledger can help compliance teams detect cross-chain laundering?

Global Ledger helps compliance teams detect cross-chain laundering by providing real-time transaction monitoring, behavioural risk analysis, cross-chain tracing, and entity intelligence. This allows investigators to identify suspicious patterns across multiple blockchains and detect illicit flows before they move further through laundering routes.