Mint

Travel Rule On-Chain

Avoid errors when performing $3000+ transfers by complying with the FinCEN Travel Rule.

Due to FinCEN guidance regarding transfers of $3,000 or more, Circle APIs may require you to share KYC information about the originator of the transaction to prevent the transfer from failing. According to FinCEN guidance regarding applicability of the Travel Rule to transfers of $3,000 or more (or matching cryptocurrency), the originating institution must transmit KYC information about the originator of a transaction to the beneficiary institution. Circle requires the sharing of this information for transfers made on the following blockchains:

  • Ethereum (ETH)
  • Solana (SOL)
  • Stellar (XLM)
  • Avalanche (AVAX)
  • Polygon (POLY)
  • Celo (CELO)
  • Arbitrum (ARB)
  • Near (NEAR) (effective April 30, 2025)
  • Base (BASE) (effective April 30, 2025)

For more information on these requirements and how data is securely collected and shared, please see our FAQ.

When sending non-business account transfers on the aforementioned chains of $3,000 in value or more, the originator’s identity will be required. If you are sending a transfer on behalf of your end-user, you need to provide the identity of your end-user. Otherwise, you need to provide your company’s identity.

In technical terms, the originator’s identity is required for POST /v1/transfers when:

  1. destination.type: "blockchain"
  2. destination.chain: "<aforementioned-blockchains>"
  3. amount.amount >= $3,000 in value

When sending transfers on the aforementioned chains of $3,000 in value or more, the originator’s identity will be required. If you are sending a payout on behalf of someone else, you need to provide the identity of them. Otherwise, you need to provide your company’s identity.

In technical terms, the originator’s identity is required for POST /v1/payouts when:

  1. destination.type: "address_book"
  2. amount.amount >= $3,000 in value

Although first-party transfers must comply with the Travel Rule, you do not need to provide your company’s identity each time you make a business account transfer POST /v1/businessAccount/transfers. Instead, Circle will use your company’s identity stored on file and provide it to the receiving institution as required.

If yours is a certain type of regulated financial institution, you are subject to additional Travel Rule compliance requirements when receiving transfers. In this case, we will provide you with the originator’s identity for webhook notifications of type transfer in addition to GET /v1/transfers and GET /v1/transfers/{id}. However, originator data will not be associated with a transfer until it is marked with a status of complete.

  • At this time, not all sending institutions are participating in the on-chain Travel Rule requirement. Therefore, not all transfers valued at $3,000 or more will have the originating person associated.

  • If you are a financial institution and do not see the originator’s identity, please reach out to a Circle representative.

FieldTypeDefinition
Identities.type [REQUIRED]String [enum]: individual, businessindividual - A uniquely distinguishable individual.

business - Any entity other than a natural person that can establish a permanent customer relationship with an affected entity or otherwise own property. This can include companies, foundations, anstalt, partnerships, associations and other relevantly similar entities
Identities.name [REQUIRED]String [max length 1024]Full name of the originator.
Identities.addresses.line1 [REQUIRED]String [max length 1024]Line one of the street address.

Note: If the originator is a business, this is the principal place of business address. If the originator is an individual, this is the current residential address.
identities.addresses.line2String [max length 1024]Line two of the street address.
Identities.addresses.city [REQUIRED]String [max length 1024]City portion of the address.
identities.addresses.districtString [max length 16]State / County / Province / Region portion of the address. If the country is US or Canada district is required and should use the two-letter code for the subdivision.
Identities.addresses.country [REQUIRED]String [max length 2]Country portion of the address. Formatted as a two-letter country code specified in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2.
identities.addresses.postalCode [REQUIRED]String [max length 16]Postal / ZIP code of the address.

Request

JSON
{
  "idempotencyKey": "ba943ff1-ca16-49b2-ba55-1057e70ca5c7",
  "source": {
    "type": "wallet",
    "id": "12345",
    "identities": [
      {
        "type": "individual",
        "name": "Satoshi Nakamoto",
        "addresses": [
          {
            "line1": "100 Money Street",
            "line2": "Suite 1",
            "city": "Boston",
            "district": "MA",
            "country": "US",
            "postalCode": "01234"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "destination": {
    "type": "blockchain",
    "address": "0x8381470ED67C3802402dbbFa0058E8871F017A6F",
    "chain": "ETH"
  },
  "amount": {
    "amount": "3000.00",
    "currency": "USD"
  }
}

Response

JSON
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "b36cbf12-6ed1-47ed-9eb9-5874f8991ca8",
      "source": {
        "type": "wallet",
        "id": "12345",
        "identities": [
          {
            "type": "individual",
            "name": "Satoshi Nakamoto",
            "addresses": [
              {
                "line1": "100 Money Street",
                "line2": "Suite 1",
                "city": "Boston",
                "district": "MA",
                "country": "US",
                "postalCode": "01234"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      },
      "destination": {
        "type": "blockchain",
        "address": "0x8381470ED67C3802402dbbFa0058E8871F017A6F",
        "chain": "ETH"
      },
      "amount": {
        "amount": "3000.00",
        "currency": "USD"
      },
      "transactionHash": "0x4cebf8f90c9243a23c77e4ae20df691469e4b933b295a73376292843968f7a63",
      "status": "pending",
      "createDate": "2020-04-10T02:13:30.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

returnIdentities[boolean]: Specify if you would like to see identities in the response. Restricts maximum returned items to 5. By default returnIdentities is false, resulting in the response not returning data.source.identities.

Response

JSON
{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "b36cbf12-6ed1-47ed-9eb9-5874f8991ca8",
      "source": {
        "type": "wallet",
        "id": "12345",
        "identities": [
          {
            "type": "individual",
            "name": "Satoshi Nakamoto",
            "addresses": [
              {
                "line1": "100 Money Street",
                "line2": "Suite 1",
                "city": "Boston",
                "district": "MA",
                "country": "US",
                "postalCode": "01234"
              }
            ]
          }
        ]
      },
      "destination": {
        "type": "blockchain",
        "address": "0x8381470ED67C3802402dbbFa0058E8871F017A6F",
        "chain": "ETH"
      },
      "amount": {
        "amount": "3000.00",
        "currency": "USD"
      },
      "transactionHash": "0x4cebf8f90c9243a23c77e4ae20df691469e4b933b295a73376292843968f7a63",
      "status": "pending",
      "createDate": "2020-04-10T02:13:30.000Z"
    }
  ]
}

returnIdentities[boolean]: Specify if you would like to see identities in the response. Restricts maximum returned items to 5. By default returnIdentities is false, resulting in the response not returning data.source.identities.

Response

JSON
{
  "data": {
    "id": "b36cbf12-6ed1-47ed-9eb9-5874f8991ca8",
    "source": {
      "type": "wallet",
      "id": "12345",
      "identities": [
        {
          "type": "individual",
          "name": "Satoshi Nakamoto",
          "addresses": [
            {
              "line1": "100 Money Street",
              "line2": "Suite 1",
              "city": "Boston",
              "district": "MA",
              "country": "US",
              "postalCode": "01234"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "destination": {
      "type": "blockchain",
      "address": "0x8381470ED67C3802402dbbFa0058E8871F017A6F",
      "chain": "ETH"
    },
    "amount": {
      "amount": "3000.00",
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "transactionHash": "0x4cebf8f90c9243a23c77e4ae20df691469e4b933b295a73376292843968f7a63",
    "status": "pending",
    "createDate": "2020-04-10T02:13:30.000Z"
  }
}

Payload

JSON
{
  "clientId": "c60d2d5b-203c-45bb-9f6e-93641d40a599",
  "notificationType": "transfers",
  "transfer": {
    "id": "b36cbf12-6ed1-47ed-9eb9-5874f8991ca8",
    "source": {
      "type": "wallet",
      "id": "12345",
      "identities": [
        {
          "type": "individual",
          "name": "Satoshi Nakamoto",
          "addresses": [
            {
              "line1": "100 Money Street",
              "line2": "Suite 1",
              "city": "Boston",
              "district": "MA",
              "country": "US",
              "postalCode": "01234"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "destination": {
      "type": "blockchain",
      "address": "0x8381470ED67C3802402dbbFa0058E8871F017A6F",
      "chain": "ETH"
    },
    "amount": {
      "amount": "3000.00",
      "currency": "USD"
    },
    "transactionHash": "0x4cebf8f90c9243a23c77e4ae20df691469e4b933b295a73376292843968f7a63",
    "status": "pending",
    "createDate": "2020-04-10T02:13:30.000Z"
  }
}
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