Overview

Since privacy is a key principle of blockchain technology, transactions on the blockchain do not contain any information about the people or organizations involved. However, criminals may try to use this anonymity to hide illicit fund transfers. To prevent funds from being sent to criminals or sanctioned parties, regulators in many jurisdictions have begun mandating the collection of personal data for users transacting on the blockchain.

The Fireblocks AML feature allows you to automate real-time monitoring of your crypto transactions in order to ensure compliance with Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations, prevent interactions with sanctioned entities, and identify customer behavior. You can integrate your Fireblocks account with Chainalysis or Elliptic, our third-party transaction monitoring providers, to retrieve AML/CFT information on your incoming and outgoing transactions. You can also implement your own custom screening logic for AML providers that are not natively supported.

In either case, your AML provider analyzes your transactions in real time and screens them based on the policy you create. The provider then returns a risk profile based on the transaction details (including addresses). You can approve, reject, or receive alerts for transactions in response to the provided risk information.

You, the transaction owner, are responsible for compliance reporting. Fireblocks and the AML provider make reporting easy with auditable risk information available for export. In the event of a risky transaction in a jurisdiction that requires reporting, your compliance officer will need to file any regulatory requirements with the appropriate authorities.