Institutional Cryptocurrency Exchange BlockBid Partners with LexisNexis
It seems that the mega deal between analytics firm RELX Group and ThreatMetrix has finally come to fruition, as LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a RELX subsidiary, has now entered into a partnership with a cryptocurrency exchange using the newly acquired database of 1.4 billion users. RELX Group bought ThreatMetrix back in January 2018 for $817 million.
Win-Win Situation
Blockbid, the Melbourne-based exchange with whom LexisNexis has entered into a partnership, benefits from this deal as it will get access to multiple data pools to identify and legitimize data about its customers during the on-boarding process.
Thomas Brown, the Senior Vice President of LexisNexis, views the deal as a part of a larger attempt in the industry to bring services which were traditionally offered to banks, to cryptocurrency exchanges. The VP said:
“This deal is a great example of trying to bring the type of bank-grade capabilities to the cryptocurrency world that we’ve offered in banks around the world for decades.”
However, it has been hard for cryptocurrency exchanges like Blockbid and other startups to obtain account information from traditional banks, as it requires the corporate account holders to prove funds were not obtained through illicit means.
This concern has been somewhat mitigated through this deal, as the new customers’ data will be cross verified with watchlist data compiled from more than 1,000 lists around the world.
Augmenting Cryptocurrency Services
Beyond a typical cryptocurrency exchange, Blockbid wants to provide services which are specific to the clients it serves. According to David Sapper, the COO of Blockbid, institutional clients today are looking for a better way to guarantee identities compared to the anonymity sought by early cryptocurrency users.
In an attempt to continuously refine their services, LexisNexis is now offering a whole catalog of ThreatMetrix tools with a focus on cryptocurrency exchanges. One such resource includes proxy-piercing technology which aims to identify hackers that mask their identities using VPN or a Tor browser.
Sapper iterated that Blockbid is currently aimed at institutional investors, including bank accounts with all of Australia’s four largest banks.
The exchange is also working with the hedge fund Bitspread to give deeper pools of liquidity for high volume trades. At a launch expected later this year, Blockbid will attempt to provide trading accounts for bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and Ripple’s XRP, once they clear LexisNexis’ onboarding process.
