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What is the travel rule in crypto?
The travel rule requires the financial institutions handling a transfer to pass along identifying information about the sender and the recipient. In the US, FinCEN applies it to crypto money transmitters: a transmittal of 3,000 US dollars or more, or its equivalent in crypto, can trigger it.
What it means for you
In the US, when a platform sends your crypto to another institution, it may have to obtain and pass on information about you and the recipient before or at the time of the transfer. The obligation sits on money transmitters; under FinCEN's guidance, a person using an unhosted wallet to transact on their own behalf is not a money transmitter.
How it works
FinCEN's 2019 guidance says a transmittal order involving convertible virtual currency is an instruction to pay a determinable amount of money, so crypto transfers qualify as transmittals of funds under the Funds Travel Rule, 31 CFR 1010.410(f). A money transmitter acting as the sender's institution, the recipient's institution or an intermediary must obtain or provide the required information before or at the time of the transfer. The information need not travel over the same system as the coins; it can be sent separately. Hosted wallet providers comply according to their position in the transmission chain.
Source: FinCEN: FIN-2019-G001, regulations applied to business models involving convertible virtual currencies · checked 4 October 2026
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