What is an AML check for a crypto wallet?

Who checks crypto addresses, and why?

Exchanges, instant exchange services, and payment companies do. Regulators require them to know where a customer’s money came from and to stop funds tied to crime. So every incoming deposit runs through an analytics database that labels blockchain addresses.

For you, this means the exchange looks at more than the amount. It also looks at the history of the address the coins came from. Buy USDT on P2P from someone with a flagged address, and the questions come to you, even though you broke no rule.

Each network is screened on its own. The same 0x address can carry a flag on one network and none on another, which is why a thorough check looks at the networks one by one.

How does a database decide an address is risky?

Analytics companies have spent years labeling addresses. Some sources are public: the OFAC sanctions list, for example, names crypto addresses outright. The rest comes from their own investigations, exchange data, and reports of hacks and fraud.

An address most often gets flagged for one of these reasons:

• it belongs to a person or service on a sanctions list
• it is tied to darknet markets, scam projects, or the cash-out of stolen funds
• its funds passed through mixers or other services that hide where money came from
• it received direct or indirect transfers from addresses that are already flagged

Every database has its own method, so their answers sometimes differ. We show the combined answer from Binance AML, AMLBot, PureFi, and TRM Labs at the moment of the check.

What is a risk score, and why isn’t it in our report?

Many services issue a wallet risk score: a percentage, or a label like “high risk” attached to the address. It’s one company’s model, adding up signals with weights nobody outside can see. And every exchange sets its own threshold for blocking a transfer.

We don’t invent a score on top of the data. The report shows what the databases actually answered, declined or passed, for each network separately. You see exactly where the problem is, without guessing what “medium risk” is supposed to mean. The home page explains how to read the report.

Can a check guarantee a “clean” wallet?

No. A check describes the state of the databases at the moment you ask. Tomorrow a database may flag the address after a new investigation, and the exchange applies its own rules on top of any outside check. That’s why we never use the words “clean” and “safe” about a result, not even when no database declined the address.

Someone searching for a “dirty crypto check” or a “clean crypto wallet” is usually looking for an AML check. “Dirty” or “tainted” coins are coins whose history leads back to flagged addresses. The tokens themselves are identical; only the path they took is different.

If time has passed since your last check, run it again right before you send money. It’s the cheapest precaution against a freeze.

What happens if an address is flagged?

If you send money to a flagged address, an exchange will most likely reject the transfer. If the address that sent you money is flagged, your exchange may freeze the deposit and ask where the funds came from.

What to do then, and which documents support usually asks for, is covered separately: AML freeze on a deposit.

How do you run a free AML check on a wallet?

1. Copy the address: your own, or the one that will send you money.
2. Paste it into the field on the home page and press “Check”. The Telegram bot opens, and the check starts at once.
3. Wait while the bot asks each network 10 times. Report rows fill in as the answers arrive.
4. Read the result and each network’s row. A declined network means a transfer through it will most likely fail.

The check is free, with no sign-up, up to 10 checks an hour. It covers addresses on EVM networks, Tron, Bitcoin, and Solana.