Swiss Crypto Firms Say First Automated, AML-Compliant Bitcoin Transfer Completed
Three Swiss crypto companies say they’ve successfully completed the first automated Bitcoin transaction that meets anti-money laundering (AML) standards.
- Zug-based Crypto Finance AG and 21 Analytics, and Geneva’s Mt Pelerin announced Friday 21 CHF worth of bitcoin (~$23) had been sent in a live demonstration of a new transaction that automatically complied with the AML requirements set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Swiss markets regulator.
- The transaction took place late Thursday.
- FATF holds virtual asset service providers (VASPs) to the same standards as traditional bank transfers.
- Known as the Travel Rule, the FATF standard requires VASPs to exchange data that identifies both the originator and the beneficiary on any transaction over $1,000.
- Since the rule came into force last year, intermediaries have so far been forced to do this manually – but the live demonstration shows that transactions now can be sent with all the AML details automatically added.
- “The transfer was fully automated using TRP, instead of manually creating PDFs and sending that for each transaction, which happened to be the case for FINMA-regulated Swiss VASPs so far,” said Lucas Betschart, CEO and founder 21 Analytics in an email.
- The live demonstration – viewable here – between Crypto Finance and Mt Pelerin was powered by 21 Analytics’ AI regtech, and ran over Swiss FATF travel rule system OpenVASP and the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP), another institution-focused solution led by ING Bank.
- It also used the industry’s data standard, the InterVASP Messaging Standard (IVMS101).
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