From Finance Fraud Investigations to Blockchain Forensics Careers: Can Banking Experience Transfer to Crypto?

If you’re coming from financial crime investigations, the switch is very doable — but here’s the honest bit: your background is an edge only if you can show on-chain thinking, not just “I did fraud cases in banking.”

The overlap is real: following value flows, forming hypotheses, documenting reasoning, escalation judgment, pattern recognition. The gap is also real: wallet behavior isn’t account behavior. You’ll run into clustering heuristics, gas/fees, mixers, bridges, peel chains, dusting, DeFi hops, and “the money moved but the actor didn’t” situations.

If you want an efficient path: learn basics first (UTXO vs account model, how explorers read, what a bridge is, what a DEX swap looks like), then practice on public cases using explorers + simple spreadsheets before obsessing over paid tools. Tools like Reactor/TRM/Elliptic help you go faster, but they don’t replace judgment — and many people can’t access them unless they’re already in a role.

What hiring managers love is proof: pick 2–3 public scam/rug cases, write a short case brief (timeline, clusters, assumptions, limitations, where you’d request off-chain data). That immediately separates you from “took a course” profiles.

This is helpful. One practical thing I’m stuck on: how do you get hands-on practice without access to Chainalysis/TRM? Most job posts mention them, but I’m not sure how candidates are expected to demonstrate ability.

Also, in your view, what roles are the best “entry bridge” from banking investigations — exchange investigations/AML ops, compliance analytics, threat intel, or something else?

Yeah — I’d avoid the huge “here are 25 random forums” approach. For this niche, staying updated usually means following the right reports + being in a few practitioner circles, not joining everything.

A few places that consistently produce signal:

• ACAMS (crypto/financial crime webinars, local chapters, practitioners who actually hire).

• Vendor webinars + research from Chainalysis / TRM / Elliptic — even if you don’t have tool access, their case studies teach real typologies.

• Public sector / research reports (Europol-style threat reports, ransomware typologies, laundering patterns) — these are gold for “how investigators think.”

• OSINT communities (because on-chain forensics is usually half on-chain, half off-chain identity work).

• Technical Q&A spaces like Bitcoin StackExchange / Ethereum developer forums for the mechanics behind what you’re seeing on-chain.

If your goal is networking: don’t just lurk. Post one small case note a month (“here’s the flow I observed + what I’m unsure about”). That’s how you get DMs from the right people.

If you’re coming from banking fraud/STR work, here’s a practical way to switch without wasting months.

30-day ramp (no paid tools needed): Week 1: Learn the mechanics you’ll see daily in crypto investigations (UTXO vs account model, what a bridge looks like, DEX swap vs simple transfer, mixer basics). Week 2: Do wallet tracing on 2 public cases using explorers (Etherscan/Blockchair) + a spreadsheet. Focus on how value moves, not “who is who.” Week 3: Write 2 short case briefs (this becomes your portfolio). Week 4: Start mapping “banking instincts → on-chain equivalents” (layering, rapid hops, peel chains, cash-out points, OTC/exchange exposure, mule patterns).

Case brief template (keep it 1–2 pages):

Case link/source + what happened (2 lines)

Hypothesis (what you think the actor is doing)

Key tx hashes + addresses (top 5–10 only)

Flow summary (where funds came from → where they went)

Typology tags (scam, laundering, bridge hop, mixer, cash-out)

Off-chain requests you’d make (KYC, IP/device, withdrawal logs)

Assumptions + limitations (what you can’t prove from chain alone)

Conclusion: 3 bullets + next actions

If you do just 2–3 briefs like this, you’ll look “hire-ready” for blockchain forensics / crypto investigations faster than collecting random certs.

What I’ve noticed when people switch from banking fraud/AML → crypto forensics is this: the investigation mindset transfers almost 1:1, but the evidence layer changes. In TradFi you start with accounts + internal logs. In crypto you start with public flows and you earn the right to ask for off-chain data later (KYC, withdrawal logs, device/IP, support tickets).

So if you’re making this switch, don’t brand yourself as “new to crypto.” Brand yourself as “already trained in casework + escalation judgment,” and show you’ve started building the on-chain muscle. 

The fastest proof is boring but effective: pick 2 public scam/rug cases and write short briefs (flow, assumptions, what you’d request off-chain, what’s uncertain). That’s the difference between “I took a course” and “I can work cases.”

If you want to go deeper, a few related hubs/threads we keep updating: https://artofblockchain.club/discussion/proof-based-hiring-in-web3

https://artofblockchain.club/discussion/job-search-web3-career-navigation-hub

https://artofblockchain.club/discussion/salary-tokens-compensation-hub

If anyone here has actually worked investigations inside an exchange / analytics team: what did you expect from candidates before they ever touched Chainalysis/TRM?