How-to: Onboard EEA customers

Onboarding EEA-resident business end users follows the same core API flow as non-EEA onboarding, but routes through Circle France SAS rather than Circle LLC, and requires EEA Terms acceptance before account activation. For the non-EEA onboarding path, see Onboard customers. Your path to serving EEA end users depends on whether your business sits in the flow of funds:

Model	Flow of funds	Onboarding path
Partner	Not in flow of funds	Manual Partner Enablement process with Circle
Wholesale	In flow of funds	COP Level 3 KYB on Circle France SAS + Compliance flow-of-funds program review + wholesale custody provisioning

The following steps apply to the wholesale model.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure that you’ve:

Signed a distributor agreement with Circle France SAS, or confirmed your Circle LLC agreement covers EEA end users through a cross-entity arrangement.
Integrated the EEA Terms into your product to surface them to end users and record click-through acceptance.
Provisioned EEA sandbox access for Digital Asset Accounts through your Circle representative. EEA sandbox uses the same api-sandbox.circle.com host and credentials as standard DAA sandbox access; your Circle representative enables EEA routing on your existing sandbox account.

Steps

Step 1. Determine your booking pattern

EEA end users are always booked to Circle France SAS, but the booking pattern depends on which Circle entity you contract with. Two patterns are supported:

Circle France SAS distributor: You contract with Circle France SAS. All EEA end-user subaccounts are booked to Circle France SAS, and full MiCA controls apply throughout.
Circle LLC distributor: You contract with Circle LLC. EEA-resident end users are automatically booked to Circle France SAS at the subaccount level; no re-contracting is required.

For a full explanation of booking patterns, entity responsibilities, and asset segregation requirements, see EEA operations under MiCA.

Step 2. Complete COP Level 3 KYB for the end user

EEA business end users must complete COP Level 3 KYB with Circle France SAS. The verification flow uses the same End User Onboarding API. Follow the steps in Onboard customers, keeping the following EEA differences in mind:

The contracting entity is Circle France SAS. Use your EEA-provisioned credentials and the EEA sandbox environment.
COP Level 3 requires business entity verification, beneficial owner details, and supporting documentation.
In production, a Compliance flow-of-funds program review is also required before the account can be activated. Your Circle representative will initiate this review after the KYB application is submitted.

Step 3. Surface EEA terms and capture acceptance

Before submitting the onboarding application, surface the EEA Terms in your product and record the end user’s click-through acceptance. Pass the acceptance when submitting the application:

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api-sandbox.circle.com/v1/onboarding/partner/applications/{applicationId}/submit \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header "X-Idempotency-Key: $(uuidgen)" \
  --data '{
    "endUserIpAddress": "203.0.113.1",
    "endUserAgreesToTermsOfService": true
  }'

Do not submit an application with endUserAgreesToTermsOfService set to false or omitted. The account cannot be activated without recorded acceptance.

Step 4. Provision and activate the subaccount

After KYB approval and EEA Terms acceptance, retrieve the active subaccount using the clientEntityId from the onboarding flow:

curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api-sandbox.circle.com/v1/accounts?clientEntityId={clientEntityId}" \
  --header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'

{
  "data": [
    {
      "accountId": "1017407114",
      "clientEntityId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "type": "client",
      "status": "active",
      "description": "Digital Asset Account External Entity Wallet",
      "balances": []
    }
  ]
}

The subaccount is booked to Circle France SAS and ready for onchain transactions.

EEA account differences

EEA subaccounts differ from the standard model in several ways:

Inbound crypto deposits: Deposits may enter a held state pending Travel Rule evaluation before crediting to the account. See Transaction states.
Outbound crypto transfers: All external beneficiary addresses must be pre-registered in the Platform Address Book before a transfer can be initiated. See EEA API behavior.
SCA-sensitive actions: Programmatic money movement requires mTLS with a Qualified Website Authentication Certificate (QWAC) in addition to a bearer token. For the full list of SCA-governed actions and the authentication flow, see EEA API behavior.

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End User Onboarding

How-to: Onboard EEA customers

Prerequisites

Steps

Step 1. Determine your booking pattern

Step 2. Complete COP Level 3 KYB for the end user

Step 3. Surface EEA terms and capture acceptance

Step 4. Provision and activate the subaccount

EEA account differences

​Prerequisites

​Steps

​Step 1. Determine your booking pattern

​Step 2. Complete COP Level 3 KYB for the end user

​Step 3. Surface EEA terms and capture acceptance

​Step 4. Provision and activate the subaccount

​EEA account differences

Prerequisites

Steps

Step 1. Determine your booking pattern

Step 2. Complete COP Level 3 KYB for the end user

Step 3. Surface EEA terms and capture acceptance

Step 4. Provision and activate the subaccount

EEA account differences