Digital assets are already part of members’ lives. Here’s how AI can help credit unions turn DeFi, stablecoins, and crypto data into safer, member-centric banking.
Most credit unions are watching digital assets from the sidelines while their members move money into apps and platforms that don’t even know what a SEG is.
That gap is the real risk—far more than crypto itself.
On The CUInsight Network, St. Cloud Financial Credit Union’s CEO Jed Meyer and DaLand CUSO’s CIO of Information/Innovation Jon Ungerland made one thing crystal clear: digital money is already part of members’ lives, and credit unions have a narrow window to decide whether they’ll shape that future or just react to it.
This post picks up that thread and adds a layer that’s front and center in this series: how AI for credit unions can turn digital assets, data, and DeFi into member-centric banking—not a compliance nightmare.
Why Credit Unions Can’t Sit Out Digital Assets
Credit unions that ignore digital assets won’t just miss a trend—they’ll slowly lose relevance and deposits.
Jed Meyer admitted he was skeptical at first. Then he started seeing how much of his members’ wealth was quietly flowing into crypto exchanges and fintech apps. That money wasn’t vanishing; it was just leaving the local ecosystem St. Cloud was built to serve.
“We have to get into the game of convenience so we can continue to prove that credit unions are the best financial institutions for consumers to partner with.” – Jed Meyer
Here’s what this really means:
- Members already live in a multi-rail world. ACH, cards, P2P, crypto wallets, stablecoins, and now tokenized deposits. If you only serve the first two, you’re operating on a fraction of their financial reality.
- You’re competing for trust while others own convenience. Fintechs give instant onboarding, portfolios in a tap, and crypto access 24/7—usually with weak guardrails and no relationship. Credit unions have the opposite: strong trust, weak convenience.
- Regulatory risk doesn’t go away by ignoring it. Members will still experiment with DeFi and crypto. The difference is whether they do it with guidance from a regulated, community-based institution—or in the wild.
The good news? Credit unions are actually perfectly positioned to bring sanity to the digital asset ecosystem. But that only works if they combine AI, data, and smart connections into DeFi instead of pretending this is a fad.
From Crypto Chaos to Member-Centric Money
The biggest misconception about digital assets is that it’s all speculation and hype. For a retail investor on a mobile app, that might be true. For a credit union, it’s something else entirely: a new set of rails for value, programmable in real time.
Jon Ungerland and DaLand’s work with St. Cloud Financial Credit Union is a good preview of what a sane, member-first approach can look like.
Coin2Core: Connecting Core Banking to DeFi
DaLand’s Coin2Core concept does one essential thing: it connects the credit union core to decentralized finance networks and cryptocurrencies in a controlled, compliant way.
Instead of pretending members aren’t moving into digital assets, Coin2Core:
- Lets members move between traditional accounts and digital assets through the credit union
- Keeps balances and flows visible to the institution, instead of disappearing to an exchange
- Creates a path for innovations like white-label stablecoins that are actually backed and governed by a community institution
St. Cloud used this approach to offer its own stablecoin, branded to the credit union, tied back into member accounts. That’s a big shift:
- Members get the convenience and functionality they see in crypto apps
- The credit union keeps the relationship and data that drives long-term value
Where AI Fits In
AI is what turns this from “we offer crypto access” into “we orchestrate your entire financial life, including digital assets, around your goals.”
AI for credit unions can:
- Detect unusual digital asset activity as part of fraud and AML detection, not in a separate silo
- Provide personalized financial wellness coaching that includes crypto balances and risks
- Power member service automation that understands questions about wallets, stablecoins, and on/off ramps in plain language
The reality? Digital assets don’t replace the credit union model. They expand the surface area where member-centric banking can show up—if you have the data and AI tools to see the full picture.
AI + Digital Assets: Practical Use Cases for Credit Unions
If “AI for digital assets” sounds abstract, here’s what actually works today for credit unions that want to stay relevant without overextending.
1. Smarter Fraud Detection Across Fiat and Crypto
Fraud patterns in digital assets move fast. Manual review doesn’t stand a chance.
AI-driven fraud detection can:
- Watch transaction patterns across channels: card rails, ACH, P2P, and crypto on/off ramps
- Flag behavior like:
- Frequent transfers to newly created wallets
- Rapid movement from fiat to stablecoins to external exchanges
- Known scam typologies (e.g., romance scams funding crypto purchases)
- Adapt faster than rule-only systems, using machine learning models trained on evolving data
That means your risk team isn’t trying to bolt crypto logic onto legacy tools. Instead, they’re looking at one unified risk view that includes members’ digital asset activity.
2. Loan Decisioning That Sees the Whole Balance Sheet
Traditional loan engines ignore crypto balances. That’s a problem when a meaningful chunk of a member’s wealth is held in digital assets.
AI-driven loan decisioning can:
- Ingest verified digital asset holdings (e.g., on-chain positions or custodial balances connected via Coin2Core)
- Adjust risk profiles based on:
- Volatility and asset mix
- Member behavior (long-term holder vs. frequent trader)
- Correlation to other income and savings
- Run simulations: “What happens to this member’s risk if digital markets drop 40%?”
I’m not a fan of using crypto as collateral blindly. But ignoring it completely makes underwriting less accurate and less fair. AI lets you weigh it with nuance instead of treating all digital assets as either toxic or invisible.
3. Member Service Automation That Speaks “Crypto Human”
Members are already asking frontline staff questions like:
- “Why did my crypto transfer get flagged?”
- “Can I use my stablecoin for payments?”
- “What happens tax-wise if I move between wallets?”
Most credit union employees aren’t crypto experts, and they shouldn’t have to be.
AI-powered member service tools (chatbots, virtual agents, and internal knowledge assistants) can:
- Answer basic digital asset FAQs with consistent, compliant language
- Route higher-risk or nuanced issues to trained staff
- Translate complex concepts—wallets, DeFi yields, stablecoins—into plain English matched to your credit union’s risk posture
This keeps your brand from looking out of touch while protecting staff from being put on the spot about topics they’re not fully comfortable with.
4. Personalized Financial Wellness That Includes Digital Money
Jed Meyer emphasized education—for leaders and members—as non-negotiable. AI makes that scalable.
AI-driven financial wellness tools can:
- Aggregate traditional and digital accounts into a single member view
- Surface insights like:
- “You’ve got 35% of your liquid wealth in highly volatile assets. Here’s what that meant in dollar swings last month.”
- “You’re paying 18% interest on a card while keeping stablecoins that earn 3%. Want to explore a different strategy?”
- Nudge members toward healthier behavior with context-aware recommendations instead of generic tips
This is what “member-centric banking” actually looks like in 2025: not just mobile convenience, but guidance that respects how members actually manage money across old and new rails.
How to Start: A Practical Roadmap for CU Leaders
Most credit unions don’t need a crypto trading desk. They need a disciplined, staged approach that keeps them in the game without blowing up their risk profile.
Here’s a roadmap that works.
Step 1: Get Leadership Educated, Not Sold
The worst move is to buy a shiny platform before your board and senior team understand the landscape.
Focus first on:
- Executive and board education on digital assets, tokenization, and DeFi
- Clear alignment on your risk appetite and member segments
- A shared language: what stablecoin, tokenized deposit, and wallet mean in your context
If your leadership can’t explain your posture on digital assets in three sentences, you’re not ready to pick vendors.
Step 2: Map Member Behavior With Data and AI
Before launching anything, figure out what your members are already doing.
Use AI-backed analytics to:
- Identify outflows to major exchanges and fintechs
- Segment members by behavior (experimenters, heavy traders, passive holders)
- Estimate how much wallet activity is likely happening off-platform
This tells you:
- How urgent this is for your institution
- Which segments to prioritize
- What education and risk controls you’ll actually need
Step 3: Start With Safe, Supervised Rails
Follow the St. Cloud model: start where your cooperative advantages matter.
Initial moves can include:
- Offering on/off ramps between member accounts and selected digital asset services
- Exploring a white-label stablecoin that’s tightly governed and fully backed
- Integrating digital asset visibility into your core and online banking, even before full transactional capability
Then layer AI on top to monitor flows, detect anomalies, and personalize communication.
Step 4: Build a Feedback Loop Between AI, Risk, and Member Experience
The strongest digital asset strategies aren’t “set and forget.” They evolve.
Set up:
- Cross-functional teams (IT, risk, member experience, marketing) to review AI insights regularly
- Periodic model tuning as patterns change
- Member feedback channels to refine how you present and explain digital asset features
The goal isn’t to become a crypto company. It’s to stay a credit union—trusted, local, member-owned—while speaking the financial language your members are actually using.
The Strategic Edge: Credit Unions as Guides in a Tokenized Future
Jon Ungerland made a sharp point: leaders across industries—finance, tech, even governments—are already heavily invested in tokenized, blockchain-based money. This isn’t theoretical policy talk anymore; it’s product roadmaps, pilots, and infrastructure.
The risk for credit unions isn’t that digital assets become huge. They already are. The risk is becoming irrelevant to how members store, move, and grow value.
AI for credit unions is the bridge here. It lets you:
- See the whole financial picture—not just what sits in deposit and loan accounts
- Turn digital asset chaos into organized, actionable insight
- Deliver member-centric banking across traditional and emerging rails without abandoning your cooperative DNA
If you’re leading a credit union right now, the choice isn’t “crypto: yes or no.” The real choice is:
- Do you want a seat at the table as money becomes more digital, more programmable, and more fragmented?
- Or are you comfortable watching your members build their financial lives somewhere else while you only see what’s left over?
There’s a better way to approach this. Start small, stay member-obsessed, and use AI as the intelligence layer that turns digital assets from a threat into one more channel where your credit union proves its value.