Why Banks Decline Cryptocurrency Companies, and the Capital That Is Available

By MercFinancial · Published 2026-10-21

Banks decline cryptocurrency companies on policy, before any credit review: BSA and AML exposure, money transmitter status and revenue tied to asset prices. Here is what each reason means and which lenders fund the sector anyway.

Banks decline cryptocurrency companies because the account carries Bank Secrecy Act exposure the bank cannot price, the revenue moves with an asset the bank cannot underwrite, and the examiners who review the bank's book have, until recently, treated the sector as a reputation risk. None of those reasons is about your credit. A crypto company with clean books and a profitable model is still turned away at most branches, and the decline is a policy decision made before anyone reads the file.

This guide walks through each reason a bank says no, what changed in 2022 and 2023 and again in 2025, which digital-asset models banks still touch, and the non-bank lenders that fund specific assets and cash flows instead. It ends with what to put in a file so a decline from a bank does not become a decline everywhere.

A bank decline in this sector is a policy decision, made before anyone reads the file, and it does not travel to lenders that fund assets.

The compliance exposure a bank takes on with a crypto account

When a bank opens an account for a cryptocurrency company, it inherits that company's compliance posture. Under the Bank Secrecy Act the bank has to know who its customer is, what the customer's customers are doing, and whether the flows through the account make sense. For an exchange, an over-the-counter desk, a custodian or a payments company, that means the bank is relying on the customer's own know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering program, which the bank cannot audit the way it audits its own.

FinCEN guidance treats exchangers and administrators of convertible virtual currency as money transmitters. A money services business must register with FinCEN, maintain a written anti-money-laundering program and, as a transmitter, hold licenses state by state. A bank that discovers its customer is an unregistered or unlicensed transmitter has a problem with its own examiner, so many banks decline the category rather than check each file. The ones that do bank the sector charge for the enhanced due diligence, ask for the compliance program, the independent review and the licensing opinion up front, and reserve the right to close the account if the model changes. That is a deposit relationship. A credit relationship, where the bank's own money is at risk, is a further step most will not take.

Volatility, concentration and the deposit problem

Credit underwriting at a bank assumes the borrower's revenue next year will look something like this year's. A miner's revenue depends on hashprice, an exchange's on trading volume, a custodian's on assets under custody, and all three move with prices the business does not set. A lender writing a five-year term loan cannot say what the collateral or the cash flow will be worth at maturity, so the bank either declines or prices for a worst case the borrower will not accept.

Deposits carry the same problem in reverse. Crypto companies hold large, lumpy balances that arrive and leave quickly, and a bank with a concentration of such depositors can face a run when the sector turns. That was part of the story in 2022 and 2023, and it is why even a bank willing to open the account may cap the balance, require it to be swept elsewhere, or decline to treat it as the kind of stable funding that supports lending.

What changed in 2022 and 2023, and again in 2025

In 2022 and 2023 several banks that had built a business serving digital-asset companies failed or wound down. Regulators followed with statements warning banks about liquidity risk from crypto-related deposits, and examiners began asking pointed questions of any bank with the sector on its books. The practical result was de-risking: banks closed accounts, declined new ones and withdrew credit, not because any particular customer had done anything wrong but because the category had become expensive to supervise.

Policy has moved since. As of this writing, a 2025 executive order on fair access to banking named digital-asset businesses among those that had been cut off, and the federal banking regulators have signaled less weight on reputation risk in examinations. That changes the tone at the examiner level. It changes credit policy at the branch far more slowly, because the volatility and compliance reasons above were never about reputation. Expect accounts to become easier to open before loans become easier to get.

Which crypto models banks still touch

Bank appetite tracks how far the model sits from the asset itself. A blockchain software company that bills enterprise customers in dollars and holds no tokens on its balance sheet looks like any other software company, and some community and regional banks will bank and even lend to it. A mining or hosting operation with power contracts and equipment is a step further: a few banks open accounts, and the credit comes from equipment lenders instead. An exchange, an OTC desk or a custodian sits closest to the asset and carries the transmitter licensing question, so most banks decline it outright and the few that accept it do so as a deposit customer only.

Within each model, the file that gets a bank account has the same shape: a written compliance program, a licensing opinion from counsel, revenue in dollars, treasury held separately from operating cash, and owners with clean personal credit. The working capital and banking guide for crypto businesses covers that file in detail.

The capital that is available to crypto companies instead

Non-bank lenders solve the volatility problem by not underwriting the business as a whole. Each funds one asset or one cash flow, holds it as collateral, and sizes the loan to what that collateral is worth in a bad month.

• Equipment lenders finance ASIC miners, containers, transformers and switchgear against the resale value of the hardware and the term of the power contract. The down payment is larger than for ordinary equipment and the term is shorter. Our guide to bitcoin mining equipment financing has the detail.
• Receivables lenders advance against invoices a blockchain company sends to business customers, underwriting the customer rather than the sector.
• Revenue-based funders advance against recurring fiat revenue and collect a fixed share of monthly receipts until a set amount is repaid.
• Venture debt and private credit funds write larger facilities for companies with institutional equity or substantial hard assets, with deeper diligence and covenants.
• Digital-asset lenders, a small specialist group, lend dollars against bitcoin and a few other liquid assets held in custody, with margin calls if the price falls.

The common thread is that the lender can say what it is secured by and what it would do if the company failed. The full map is in crypto business loans.

How to keep a bank decline from following you

A bank decline is recorded nowhere a non-bank lender will see, but the habits that produced it travel. Three things keep the next application clean. Apply to the right lender type first: an equipment lender for hardware, a receivables lender for invoices, a revenue-based funder for working capital, rather than collecting bank declines that cost you time. Separate treasury from operations so the bank statements a lender reads show a business, not a trading account. And settle the licensing question in writing before anyone asks, because an answer of "we are looking into it" ends most conversations. If the business was also declined by a bank for ordinary credit reasons, the bank declined business loan playbook covers what to fix first.

Where MercFinancial fits

MercFinancial is a commercial funding brokerage in Houston, not a lender, and it does not promise that any crypto company will be approved. It reviews the file first: the model, the licensing position, the revenue in dollars and the assets a lender could hold. From more than 160 wholesale and institutional funding sources it identifies the ones whose credit policy allows a digital-asset business, places one file with all of them, compares the offers, and says plainly when nothing fits and what would change that. Availability always depends on the funding source. The full set of guides is at cryptocurrency business funding, and the business funding page describes the eight programs a file is read against.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why won't banks bank crypto companies?

Because the account carries compliance exposure the bank cannot fully control, the revenue moves with asset prices the bank cannot underwrite, and until recently examiners treated the sector as a reputation risk. Those are policy reasons, applied before credit review. A profitable, well-run crypto company is declined at most branches for the same reasons a poorly run one is.

Did the 2023 bank failures change anything for crypto businesses?

Yes. Several banks that served the sector failed or wound down in 2022 and 2023, and most remaining banks tightened or exited. Regulators warned about crypto-related deposit risk. In 2025 a federal executive order on fair banking access named digital-asset businesses, and examiners have eased on reputation risk, but credit policy at individual banks changes more slowly than examiner guidance.

Is a crypto company a money services business?

It depends on what it does. FinCEN guidance treats exchangers and administrators of convertible virtual currency as money transmitters, which requires FinCEN registration, an anti-money-laundering program and state licensing. A company that mines or holds for its own account is generally not. A software company that never touches customer funds is generally not either. Get the position in writing from counsel.

Which lenders fund crypto companies if banks will not?

Lenders that fund a specific asset or dollar cash flow: equipment lenders for mining hardware and power gear, receivables lenders for invoices to business customers, revenue-based funders for recurring fiat revenue, venture debt and private credit funds for larger companies, and a few specialists that lend against bitcoin held in custody. Availability depends on each funding source's policy.

Does a bank decline hurt my chances with other lenders?

Not directly. A bank decline is not reported anywhere a non-bank lender sees, and most non-bank lenders expect that a crypto company was declined by a bank. What hurts is the pattern behind it: unresolved licensing, treasury mixed with operating cash, or stacked short-term advances taken after the decline. Fix those and apply to the right lender type next.

MercFinancial is a commercial funding brokerage in Houston, Texas. MercFinancial is a broker, not a lender: every loan is made by a third-party funding source, every request is subject to that source's underwriting and credit approval, and loan amounts, advance rates, interest rates, terms, fees, collateral and guaranty requirements vary by funding source and borrower and are not guaranteed. Nothing here is a commitment to lend or an offer of credit, and financing is for business purposes only. Any example in this guide is hypothetical and illustrative; actual terms and outcomes vary. Digital-asset businesses may be subject to FinCEN money-services-business registration, state money-transmitter licensing and securities law; financing availability depends on the funding source's policies. This guide is educational only and is not legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.