How to check a crypto exchange service

An AML report can identify exposure to theft, sanctions, darknet markets, mixers and fraud clusters. It complements but does not replace legal and commercial due diligence. AMLKYC is not an exchange and does not endorse individual exchange providers.

Work in the order in which the cost of a mistake rises: start with what is free and fast, then move to what takes time. The first two steps take minutes and rule out most bad options.

1. The address you are asked to send to. It is the one thing visible before the trade that says something about the trade itself rather than about the copy on the site.
2. Presence in exchange monitoring listings, and for how long. A service that appeared last week has proven nothing yet.
3. Legal details: who operates the service, where it is registered, what the terms say about refunds and disputes.
4. Trade terms: rate, fee, reserve for your direction, settlement time. A reserve smaller than your amount is a reason not to start.
5. Support channels. Test them before sending: support that answers before a trade and goes quiet after is the most common complaint there is.

• A rate noticeably better than the market. Exchange is a margin business; nobody trades at a loss, and the difference is usually funded by your money.
• A request to send to a new address because “the old one is busy”, especially when it arrives by messenger after the trade has started.
• A demand to pay more in order to “unlock” a transfer already sent. A sent transaction cannot be unlocked by a further payment — no such operation exists on a blockchain.
• No legal details alongside promises of guarantees. A guarantee with nobody to claim it from is not a guarantee.
• Pressure by deadline: “the rate holds for ten minutes”. Haste serves whoever does not want you checking.

A clean report on an address does not prove the service is honest — the address may simply be new. It only shows that nothing known is recorded against it yet. The inverse is stronger: a bad report is reason enough to walk away.

A blockchain transaction cannot be cancelled or recalled — that is a property of the technology, not a policy of any particular service. So the only actions worth taking are those that preserve evidence and improve the chance the funds are noticed at the next hop.

1. Save the transaction hash, the receiving address, the correspondence and the URL of the exchange page. Within a day some of it may already be gone.
2. Screen the receiving address: the report will be needed in any complaint you file.
3. Report what happened so the address is recorded in risk databases. This does not return funds directly, but the next platform someone tries to cash out through will see the flag.
4. Contact law enforcement. A report is worth filing with the evidence in hand rather than from memory.