A warning has been issued that crypto exchanges are increasing bank-like services such as loans and yield products, while operating without safeguards on par with traditional finance.

CoinDesk reported on April 23 that the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), in a report, highlighted that major exchanges are shifting beyond simple trading platforms into multifunction crypto intermediaries that combine the roles of banks, brokers and exchanges.

The report in particular cited the spread of interest and yield products aimed at retail investors as the biggest risk. These products look like savings-style products that generate returns in digital assets, but it judged their actual structure to be closer to lightly regulated, unsecured shadow-bank lending.

Users of exchanges hand over control of their digital assets and, in some cases, even transfer ownership to the platform. The platform uses those assets for lending, trading and market making, and pays part of the resulting profits to customers.

The problem, it said, is that although this structure can look similar to bank deposits, it lacks protections such as deposit insurance. Transparency about where and how assets are used can also be lacking. If losses occur, users are directly exposed to the risk of the platform's ability to pay.

The report cited the collapses of Celsius Network and FTX as cases that show such vulnerabilities. It said Celsius and FTX were not simply cases of poor management but examples of structures built on leverage, opacity and deposit-like promises without safeguards that then collapsed.

The report also mentioned that a sharp selloff in the crypto derivatives market in October 2025 triggered forced liquidations worth about $19 billion, and said it showed how quickly such structures can spread into cascading shocks.