Regulators Slam “Bank” on the Blockchain

AriseBank has a captivating catchphrase: “Join the biggest fight in history. The people’s bank^® has arrived.” Next to the slogan is a picture of boxing legend Evander Holyfield. The mission is simple: Help people by creating a truly decentralized bank, and create a community of charitable funds to help victims affected by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

AriseBank proposes to offer a suite of real-world banking products and solutions that would help bring cryptocurrencies to the average user. According to their website, “AriseBank is the first decentralized banking product ever created and features one of the largest cryptocurrency platforms ever built, with services like AriseID, aEx, aiExchanger, aTransfer, AriseCard, aTMs, aPocket, aPay and more. aBank is completely decentralized, which means it’s never hosted in our data center and we never touch your money. It’s entirely hosted on your desktop and mobile devices.”

The site says AriseBank will allow you to do all of the following:

1. Easily buy, sell or exchange cryptos instantly, with zero fees.
2. Reap daily gains and profits through their auto-trading functionality.
3. Send or receive money across borders for free and in seconds.
4. Accept digital currencies at your e-commerce checkout.
5. Store your assets in their hardware wallet.
6. Withdraw local fiat from an AriseBank ATM through your AriseID.
7. Use and Arisecard to make purchases anywhere VISA is accepted.
8. Earn AriseCoin rewards for being an account holder.

In short, AriseBank promises a complete banking revolution with a comprehensive mission statement that seems to intimate at every future promise of decentralized banking, making financial transactions quicker, cheaper and more effective.

As blockchain technologies bring valiant aspirations to liberate the everyman from hegemony, Wall Street and corporate greed, these fintech solutions consistently brush up against government regulators who are trying to warn the public about bad investment opportunities, crazy crypto shenanigans and outright scams.

Four days before a Medium post entitled, “Using BitShares, Holyfield and AriseBank Will Help Raise $1 Billion For Charity” put a spotlight on what appears to be a noble humanitarian effort, the Texas Department of Banking issued a consumer alert against AriseBank. It reads:

PRESS RELEASE
Date: January 5, 2018
CONSUMER ALERT
This Notice is Intended for Texas Residents:
The Texas Department of Banking has become aware of an entity holding itself out to be a bank
and soliciting funds online through a cryptocurrency investment scheme. The entity, AriseBank,
claims to be a “cryptocurrency bank” with offices in Dallas, Texas, Dubai, AE, and Zug,
Switzerland. AriseBank operates several websites including, www.arisebank.com and
www.arisecoin.com.

The entity, which also goes by “AriseBank, Ltd”, “AriseBank, Inc.”, “aBank”, “Arise Foundation,
LLC”, “AriseCoin Foundation”, or “Dotoji, LLC” is not associated with any known financial
institution chartered by a state or federal regulatory agency. No entity by that name has been
authorized to do business in Texas. AriseBank leadership includes, among others, Jared Rice Sr.,
Stanley Ford, and Tony Caldevilla.

Consumers should consider any communication or solicitation involving AriseBank to be an
attempt to obtain funds by an unauthorized and unregulated entity. Anyone with information about
this purported bank or its website should contact the Department’s Consumer Assistance Activities
at consumer.complaints@dob.texas.gov or call toll free (877) 276-5554.

As a test, we entered an email address to sign up for the AriseBank ICO, and the site immediately redirected us to a page where, theoretically, we can instantly buy the coin. ICOs typically begin at a designated time and end in a matter of hours. A post on Medium purports to reveal why AriseBank’s solicitation appears to be irregular.

As always, it’s important to do thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency or ICO.

Update: The AriseBank github does appear to be active with development well underway. An Android app for aCharts is available.

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