Swiss Crypto Firms Say First Automated, AML-Compliant Bitcoin Transfer Completed

Aug 21, 2020 at 09:28 UTCUpdated Aug 21, 2020 at 12:23 UTC

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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 [Travel Rule Protocol], 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). 

See also: FATF Plans to Strengthen Global Supervisory Framework for Crypto Exchanges

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