BitGo, a California-based crypto asset custody service provider has announced the launch of its Travel Rule compliance API for its clients. The announcement also reveals the company’s effort to stay compliant with the changing global financial landscape.
Through a press release published on Tuesday, the company noted that it is:
“the first wallet provider to come to market with a solution for the Travel Rule for its cold and hot wallet services by extending existing API endpoints for clients to append the additional data required under the new rule.”
The Recommendation 16, AKA ‘Travel Rule’, is a recommendation from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) requiring virtual asset service providers to provide additional personally identifiable information (PII) for all transactions exceeding $1,000 processed through their systems.
The cryptocurrency market is notorious for pseudonymous transactions which appeal to criminals and lawbreakers. To discourage or help combat money laundering, the FATF came up with the Travel Rule. Essentially the name stems from the idea that the transaction needs to be sent together with the PII information, therefore ‘traveling’ together.
“We are currently building the technology that will send and receive travel data in order for BitGo to be compliant as a VASP for our custodial clients,” BitGo’s CEO Mike Belshe said. “We are able to offer this technology to our exchange clients and, in the process, assist them with the new FATF standards for digital asset compliance.”
The FATF made the Travel Rule recommendation last year and since then, most VASPs have struggled to comply with the directions. The BitGo solution is an excellent addition to its product list which will help alleviate the stress and need to come up with customized solutions, especially for its clients.
Notably, BitGo is the preferred wallet service for some of the largest crypto trading platforms including Luxemburg-based Bitstamp, CME, and Genesis among others.
The company reportedly handles as much as 20% of the total daily bitcoin transactions. BitGo, however, did not provide a list of its clients that are already using the API or are interested in signing up for the new service.
In its release, BitGo added that it “is working with regulators in different countries to inform, educate and shape how FATF’s guidance should be interpreted, specifically for the unique challenges of digital assets.”
If you found this article interesting, here you can find more Blockchain and cryptocurrency news
