AML - Anti Money Laundering

[AlexanderCurl]

A-one.

[goldkingcoiner]

Has anyone had their cryptocurrency address frozen on exchange due to AML high risk positive after some transaction from address that is black-listed?

There have been multiple such cases. Not only because of AML high risk positive after an transaction from some address that is black-listed, but it can be for any reason the exchange wants it to be. They can make up literally any reason and call it suspicious. Using a VPN? Suspicious. Having too much money? Suspicious.

If they want to, they can freeze your funds and nobody should be naive enough to think it won't happen to them.

Remember: not your keys, not your coins. Do not store funds on a third party wallet which someone else has access to. You will regret it.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

Totally agree. I wanted to exchange btc to fiat. So now the exchange point  has their address frozen and demand verification from me. I had transaction sent by third-party and their addresses did not pass AML check. So now no fiat no btc.

Sad but it is what it is when you go with centralized exchanges. It's the risk you take. It is advisable to trade P2P. If you are with bitcoin for long time then you should have a close circle who always buy sell btc. You can easily ask them fiat in exchange of BTC.

What was the exchange name?

[coupable]

Totally agree. I wanted to exchange btc to fiat. So now the exchange point  has their address frozen and demand verification from me. I had transaction sent by third-party and their addresses did not pass AML check. So now no fiat no btc.

It often depends on how much money you want to exchange. The mere suspicion that it is an attempt to launder money will prompt the platform to freeze your balance until the verification procedures are completed. This is, of course, given that the platform is reliable.
As suggested to you by the rest of the members, the best solution is to use the peer-to-peer services provided by many platforms such as Binance. It is also advisable to split the amount if it is large.

Please give us details about the platform you used .

[franky1]

exchanges can set their thresholds and idea's of what they feel as a flag that is suspicious

the main one.. using a mixer.. why.. well mixing IS LAUNDERING!!
must be emphasised. MIXING IS LAUNDERING

..
now here is the thing.
if your funds are locked because you received a letter from a government authority saying you are under investigation and to seek a lawyer to explain the origins of funds to the court..
then thats the usual process..

but if there was not a court order.. usually an exchange, if legit and regulated, cannot and should not STEAL your funds for their silly internal business policy reasons.
they should atleast ask you for KYC to allow you to continue using some of their services within the exchange(by you providing more info to sway their suspicions down a few levels)..but whether you provide info or not they should allow a option to take your funds out and close your account.(apart from court order scenario previous paragraph)

they should not just confiscate your funds. (again unless their is a court order which you then apply to the court to explain your case, to get funds back if funds are legit funds not related to a crime)

..
check an exchanges small print of their service agreement terms and conditions.
a ethical, moral trusted exchange wont and should not have any reasons to steal/confiscate or not allow withdrawal of funds for their business internal reasons. at worse case they can stop you from "trading" but still allow an option to withdraw and close account if you do not wish to answer their questions

if they are claiming their terms allow them as a business to steal funds without a court order because you signed/agreed to their terms when you signed up.. then they are not a trusting or ethical business and in most cases probably are not actually regulated because many countries regulations do not let their licenced exchanges just steal funds without a court order

[Dunamisx]

Has anyone had their cryptocurrency address frozen on exchange due to AML high risk positive after some transaction from address that is black-listed?

You can have such experience with the use of centralized exchanges, all they do is to take the privacy of the user's account into their hands, they may decide to carryout any action in revealing your data and identity, they have control over your financial assets and can freeze user's account any time, Binance is a good example that did such earlier this year freezing some user's account due to suspicious of AML on their respective account.

[nakamura12]

Has anyone had their cryptocurrency address frozen on exchange due to AML high risk positive after some transaction from address that is black-listed?

There have been multiple such cases. Not only because of AML high risk positive after an transaction from some address that is black-listed, but it can be for any reason the exchange wants it to be. They can make up literally any reason and call it suspicious. Using a VPN? Suspicious. Having too much money? Suspicious.

If they want to, they can freeze your funds and nobody should be naive enough to think it won't happen to them.

Remember: not your keys, not your coins. Do not store funds on a third party wallet which someone else has access to. You will regret it.

This is sad but true. Maybe op is not storing funds on an exchange but wanted to buy or sell some crypto and then after transactions from an address that is black-listed then the funds on the exchange is frozen. That is how some trusted exchange, gambling site take money from their customers that won't be considered as scam since it is in their terms and conditions or privacy and policy  though you did nothing wrong.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Why KYC is extremely dangerous – and useless

and Not your keys, not your coins. So KYC, AML, centralized management put your account at risk if you store your coins at exchanges and in custodial wallets.

[mk4]

Totally agree. I wanted to exchange btc to fiat. So now the exchange point  has their address frozen and demand verification from me. I had transaction sent by third-party and their addresses did not pass AML check. So now no fiat no btc.

I don't think it's a good idea to let the other person send the funds directly to your exchange for this exact reason. It's better that you receive the funds directly to a non-custodial wallet, and send it around a few times to give it some hops.

Now you know, I guess.

[Darker45]

...the best solution is to use the peer-to-peer services provided by many platforms such as Binance.

LOL! If you are to use P2P but through a centralized third party, never mind. It's pointless. The reason why P2P, I mean the real P2P, is preferred is that we could avoid these KYC and AML/CTF traps and those freezing of funds, tainted coins, blacklisted addresses, anti-mixed coins, anti-gambling funds, banned or restricted countries, and other policies and rules that are contrary to Bitcoin's fundamental idea which Binance adheres to.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

and Not your keys, not your coins. So KYC, AML, centralized management put your account at risk if you store your coins at exchanges and in custodial wallets.

Well, I agree with you, but I don't think it's all about investors, what about the traders who day trade everyday as their job?
There is absolutely no way you expect this set of people to withdraw their funds and deposit it back the next day spending so much on withdrawal fees all in the name of "not your keys, not your crypto", always consider the days they will trade without making any profit to cover the withdrawal fees.
So I believe that when we say, "not your keys, not your crypto" we should remember the traders because that statement can make sense to a long term investor, but not to a day trader - but I guess that's their own risk to bear.

[xSkylarx]

They can make up literally any reason and call it suspicious. Using a VPN? Suspicious. Having too much money? Suspicious.

It's really dangerous to store your cryptocurrencies on an exchange especially if it's a huge amount. They won't allow you to appeal and won't tell the reasons why your account has been suspended.

This is why any of my crypto transactions that will be sent to an exchange goes first to my trust wallet which is a non-custodial wallet. You have the full-control on those type of wallets which can only be compromised if someone has your private key or seed phrase.

[Pmalek]

Luckily, I have not experienced such issues and wouldn't want to either. What you witnessed is just one of the dangers of using centralized exchanges, especially one that isn't that popular. You never mentioned the name. Can you tell us what exchange did that to warn the community to stay away from it?

Centralized exchanges can do pretty much anything. Freezing and locking people out of their funds is just one of those things. What's even worse, by accepting their terms of service, you knowingly/unknowingly agreed to all the nasty things that they can do to you. Things are eve worse when using centralized stablecoins because they can be frozen even in your private and non-custodial wallets.

[coupable]

...the best solution is to use the peer-to-peer services provided by many platforms such as Binance.

LOL! If you are to use P2P but through a centralized third party, never mind. It's pointless. The reason why P2P, I mean the real P2P, is preferred is that we could avoid these KYC and AML/CTF traps and those freezing of funds, tainted coins, blacklisted addresses, anti-mixed coins, anti-gambling funds, banned or restricted countries, and other policies and rules that are contrary to Bitcoin's fundamental idea which Binance adheres to.

You are right.
What I meant by that proposal was to offer a better alternative to the choice he made. And as I explained, by dividing the amount, if it is a significant amount, and using more than one peer-to-peer platform, I think this reduces the probability that his balance will be frozen.
In general, it remains dangerous to use centralized platforms with significant amounts .

[JeromeTash]

and Not your keys, not your coins. So KYC, AML, centralized management put your account at risk if you store your coins at exchanges and in custodial wallets.

Well, I agree with you, but I don't think it's all about investors, what about the traders who day trade everyday as their job?
There is absolutely no way you expect this set of people to withdraw their funds and deposit it back the next day spending so much on withdrawal fees all in the name of "not your keys, not your crypto", always consider the days they will trade without making any profit to cover the withdrawal fees.
So I believe that when we say, "not your keys, not your crypto" we should remember the traders because that statement can make sense to a long term investor, but not to a day trader - but I guess that's their own risk to bear.

But he’s talking about storing coins in an exchange, so I think he's got a point. Even as a day trader, I don't think one gets to trade their entire equity at once, otherwise it's a bad practice if anything happens from an exchange shutting down or making a poor decision and the asset price does not go as expected. So why send all the coins in an exchange if you are going to trade only, lets say a tenth of the equity.

[o_e_l_e_o]

What was the exchange name?

Yes, name and shame please. Let the community know which exchange is attacking the very principles of bitcoin by deciding it is not fungible and arbitrarily locking coins based on made up metrics, so everyone else can avoid this malicious exchange.

As suggested to you by the rest of the members, the best solution is to use the peer-to-peer services provided by many platforms such as Binance. It is also advisable to split the amount if it is large.

Binance peer to peer is nothing short of a scam. It is still centralized, it still requires KYC, still requires you to give up custody of your coins in to their centralized escrow, and they can still seize your coins if they want to. If you want to actually trade peer to peer, use Bisq or LocalCryptos.

This is why any of my crypto transactions that will be sent to an exchange goes first to my trust wallet which is a non-custodial wallet. You have the full-control on those type of wallets which can only be compromised if someone has your private key or seed phrase.

Since Trust wallet is closed source (and owned by Binance), then I'm afraid you have no idea if anyone else has access to your private keys or seed phrase since you have no idea if these things were generated securely/randomly or aren't being sent off to some third party server like other closed sourced wallets have done in the past.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

As suggested to you by the rest of the members, the best solution is to use the peer-to-peer services provided by many platforms such as Binance. It is also advisable to split

Binance is not a good option. You can not trade P2P unless you KYC verify your account. I was able to have a circle around me who regularly trade crypto. Most of the time they have my back 😉

the main one.. using a mixer.. why.. well mixing IS LAUNDERING!!
must be emphasised. MIXING IS LAUNDERING

Recently we had a case where the exchange flagged the coin because of using mixer. According to them the AML checker  gave them 100% score of money laundering. It's sad, they are policing crypto users and for them using mixer means you are whitelisting your black coins. Privacy does not matter for them.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Well, I agree with you, but I don't think it's all about investors, what about the traders who day trade everyday as their job?

It is fine if they do trades every day. If they do it, they must choose biggest and most trusted exchanges to store their money on that and trade there.

Decentralize money and trading on two to three exchanges. For safety of fund.

There is absolutely no way you expect this set of people to withdraw their funds and deposit it back the next day spending so much on withdrawal fees all in the name of "not your keys, not your crypto", always consider the days they will trade without making any profit to cover the withdrawal fees.

It is always true, I agree. Withdrawal should be made after you get enough profit and make sure you reuse your initial capital to trade in future. Another step for safety of your fund. If you lose all from trading or exchange has issues and you lose all fund on it, you still have profit part from withdrawal.

So I believe that when we say, "not your keys, not your crypto" we should remember the traders because that statement can make sense to a long term investor, but not to a day trader - but I guess that's their own risk to bear.

No. It is for all, investors and traders.

Don't store money on exchange if you don't trade. Traders trade more, investors must trade to buy and sell at least so they do need exchanges.
Try to get initial capital out of exchange. In most terrible case, you will not lose capital, not lose all.

Because you can win 10 times, 100 times but if you always store all your money on exchanges and in most terrible case, you will lose all, no capital in hands at the end.

[dansus021]

There have been multiple such cases. Not only because of AML high risk positive after an transaction from some address that is black-listed, but it can be for any reason the exchange wants it to be. They can make up literally any reason and call it suspicious. Using a VPN? Suspicious. Having too much money? Suspicious.

One of my friends got a temporary binance banned for using VPN from different countries each login. I mean what the Heck we are using a VPN for protecting why we still get banned If the second auth pretty much match we safe right

[dkbit98]

Has anyone had their cryptocurrency address frozen on exchange due to AML high risk positive after some transaction from address that is black-listed?

Luckily it never happened to me because I don't like using centralized exchanges so much, but I know other people who reported frozen coins, and they later needed to provide documents and coin history.
There are even some websites and bots who allegedly rank your coins risk level, but I think all that is ridiculous behavior forced by regulators.
If you send coins to centralized exchanges you can expect anything to happen, so I would never hold any coins there.
You can always use decentralized exchanges like Bisq, p2p trading, atomic swaps and other methods to bypass silly rules.