Mining payouts, leases and a 24-month window
A deposit lands and the exchange asks where the money came from. What counts as an answer? Exchange Kraken’s document guide, last updated March 31, 2025, lists bonus receipts, investment account statements, mining payout statements and signed lease agreements among its examples.
The rules on the paper are stricter than the list. Documents generally have to be dated within the last 24 months, a statement showing a $0 balance is refused, and the address must match the one on the profile. A request on its own is no accusation, the guide adds, since it can follow from where you live or from being a student or out of work.
Funds against wealth
Europe’s banking authority draws the line in its risk factor guidelines, EBA/GL/2021/02 of March 1, 2021. Source of funds covers the activity that produced the money, a salary for example, and also the means by which it was transferred. Source of wealth is the origin of a customer’s total wealth, such as an inheritance or savings.
A founder who moves €50,000 to an exchange might explain the funds with a bank statement showing a dividend. The wealth behind it is the company the founder built over ten years. Kraken’s business guide puts the difference in one line, saying source of funds “is not about how much money you have.”
Where the law asks for it
British rules name it in three places. The US text is far narrower.
| Rule | When source of funds comes up |
|---|---|
| UK, regulation 28(11)(a) | Ongoing monitoring scrutinizes transactions, “including, where necessary, the source of funds” |
| UK, regulation 33(3A)(c) | Extra due diligence for high-risk third countries includes source of funds and source of wealth |
| UK, regulation 35(5)(b) | Politically exposed persons, their family and close associates need “adequate measures to establish the source of wealth and source of funds” |
| US, 31 CFR 1010.620(b)(3) | Private banking accounts for non-US persons with at least $1,000,000 in deposits |
The FCA’s guidance on politically exposed persons lets firms take lighter steps in lower-risk cases, for instance using records they already hold. Exchanges, which do not fit the US private banking text, ask under their general anti-money-laundering programs, and Kraken’s business guide points to the Bank Secrecy Act and FinCEN rules as its reason.
Three ways a request goes wrong
Sending a screenshot of a large balance is the first. A business may hold a lot of money, Kraken’s guide notes, yet without documents showing where it came from, the exchange has “no way of confirming that the money is from a lawful source.”
The second is proving that money was earned but never that it arrived. A lease shows rent is owed, so the guide asks for a second document, such as a bank statement with the rent landing.
The third catches crypto users. If the coins are already on the exchange, Kraken also wants the trail into the account, a bank statement or a wallet transaction. Keep the transaction hash of every deposit from your own wallet. One document is sometimes enough, the guide says, such as a bank statement that shows both the salary arriving and the transfer out to Kraken.