AML

AML - anti-money laundering - is the body of laws, regulations, and internal controls that financial businesses use to stop criminals from disguising the proceeds of crime as legitimate money. It is not a single rule but a whole compliance program, and tokenized-asset platforms are increasingly expected to run one.

In the US, the backbone is the Bank Secrecy Act, administered by FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). A typical AML program has several moving parts:

• Customer due diligence - KYC for individuals and KYB for entities, to know who you are dealing with.
• Beneficial owner identification - finding the real people behind an entity.
• Sanctions screening - checking customers and counterparties against government watchlists.
• Transaction monitoring and reporting - watching for suspicious activity and filing Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) where required.
• Recordkeeping - keeping an auditable trail.

Crypto and token businesses that qualify as money services businesses must register with FinCEN and comply with these obligations; others build AML controls to satisfy their banking and legal partners even where the direct legal trigger is debated.

For RWA builders, AML is why onboarding has friction: you cannot simply let anonymous wallets buy a regulated token. The specific obligations depend on the business model and jurisdiction, and the rules are actively evolving, so treat requirements as current only as of their date.

Source: FinCEN (fincen.gov), as of 2026.