Digital assets
Crypto Sanctions Screening for Exchanges and Wallet Providers
Crypto sanctions screening checks the people, companies and wallet addresses behind each account and transfer against the OFAC lists, including the digital currency addresses OFAC adds to SDN entries. OfacScanner screens users at signup, counterparties and payout addresses, and keeps evidence for every result.
Withdrawal request screened
ReviewNo candidate near the threshold
Not found on any listed entry
Alias close to a listed company, country differs
No candidate near the threshold
Example data for illustration. The highest row sets the overall rating.
What is crypto sanctions screening
Sanctions rules apply to virtual currency the same way they apply to dollars. A U.S. person may not send funds to, or receive funds from, a blocked person, whether the value moves through a bank wire or a blockchain transfer. Exchanges, custodial wallets, brokers and payment processors that handle crypto are expected to screen for that risk.
For a crypto business, screening has three layers. The first is the customer, checked by name, date of birth and country at onboarding. The second is the counterparty, such as a company that receives a large withdrawal or a business customer that sends deposits. The third is the address itself. OFAC lists specific digital currency addresses as identifiers on some SDN entries, so a transfer to one of those addresses is a transfer to a blocked person.
In 2021 OFAC published sanctions compliance guidance for the virtual currency industry. It describes the same building blocks OFAC expects from any company, including risk assessment, internal controls, testing and training, and it points out that geolocation and address data matter alongside names.
What an exchange should screen
Each item below is a point where a blocked party could enter or leave your platform.
-
New users at signup
Name, date of birth and country before the account can deposit or trade.
-
Business accounts
The company name and the names of the people who act for it.
-
Withdrawal addresses
Every destination address against the digital currency addresses that appear on OFAC entries.
-
Fiat counterparties
Beneficiary names and banks on wires that fund or cash out accounts.
-
OTC and institutional desks
Counterparties on large trades, before settlement.
-
Existing users after list updates
The full user base, re-screened automatically each time the lists change.
How addresses and names are rated
Addresses are compared as exact identifiers. Names use fuzzy matching with aliases and transliteration, because listed names appear in many spellings.
What you send
- Withdrawal to address bc1q-example-address-0001
- Counterparty Northwind Digital Trading, organization, Seychelles
- User Anna Petrova, individual, born 1991
Rating you get
-
bc1q-example-address-0001
Address not present on any listed entry
0/100 Clear -
Northwind Digital Trading
Similar listed company name, different country
79/100 Review -
Anna Petrova
Common name, date of birth does not fit
72/100 Review
Example data for illustration. A real result shows the listed entry, its program, the list version and the time of the check.
List screening compared with blockchain analytics
These are two different tools. Many exchanges use both. Here is what OfacScanner does and what it does not do.
| Blockchain analytics tools | OfacScanner | |
|---|---|---|
| Listed addresses on OFAC entries | Usually included | Yes, exact match on Scale and higher |
| Tracing funds across hops | Yes | No |
| Wallet clustering and risk scores | Yes | No |
| Names of users and counterparties | Usually not the focus | Yes, with aliases and transliteration |
| UN, EU, UK, Canada and Australia lists | Varies | Yes on Growth and higher |
| Evidence PDF for each check | Varies | Yes on every plan |
OfacScanner matches addresses that appear on the published lists. It does not trace wallets or score on chain exposure.
Fitting screening into deposits and payouts
Screen the user once at signup with the sanctions screening API, then add the account to ongoing monitoring so it is re-checked whenever OFAC or another authority publishes an update. OfacScanner checks the official files every 30 minutes, so new entries reach your alerts quickly.
At withdrawal, send the destination address, the counterparty name and any bank details in one payment screening request. A Clear result lets the payout go. Review or Likely match holds it and opens a case, and the case.created webhook tells your operations queue at once.
Keep good customers moving
Allow lists on Scale let you record a reviewed false positive, so a customer who shares a name with a listed person is not held on every payout.
Handle retries safely
Idempotency keys stop a retried payout request from creating a second screening record.
The plan that covers crypto flows
Scale at $1,999 a month, or $999 a month billed yearly, includes the REST API with real time responses under 300 ms, payment screening with crypto address fields, allow lists, 500,000 checks a month and monitoring of up to 500,000 records. Growth at $499 a month fits a smaller platform that screens users in batches without the API. Results support your decisions. Your team decides whether to block, reject or report, and OfacScanner is not affiliated with OFAC or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Crypto sanctions screening questions
Another question? Write to [email protected].
Does OFAC list crypto wallet addresses?
Does OfacScanner trace funds or score wallets?
Which plan includes crypto address screening?
How often are the lists refreshed?
What if a withdrawal hits a listed address?
Keep exploring
Screen your first name in seconds
Type a person or company name, see the risk rating and top candidates from the current OFAC list, and keep the evidence when you sign up.
Results support your compliance decisions, and the final decision stays with your team. OfacScanner is not affiliated with OFAC or the U.S. Department of the Treasury.