Why the exchange asks for a sales contract
You sold an apartment in the spring and want to put part of the money into crypto. The exchange takes the deposit, then holds it and asks for the sales contract.
Why would a trading app care about a property deal? Anti-money-laundering rules make it answer for where customer money comes from as well as for who the customer is, and only the second question is settled by KYC at sign-up.
The US: a 1970 law and a $2,000 line
The American rulebook is built on a 1970 law, known today as the Bank Secrecy Act. According to FinCEN’s summary of the act, its regulations require reports on cash transactions above $10,000 in a day, plus reports on activity that could point to laundering or tax evasion.
Where do crypto firms fit? A 2023 Treasury risk assessment puts US virtual asset service providers in the money services business category. That category has a lower line. Once such a firm suspects that a transaction of $2,000 or more involves illicit funds, 31 CFR 1022.320 gives it 30 calendar days to file a suspicious activity report.
Europe moves to one rulebook
Brussels is replacing the national versions of its directives with a single regulation, and the start date is already in the text. Here is how the two systems looked side by side on November 8, 2026.
| Point | United States | European Union |
|---|---|---|
| Main law | Bank Secrecy Act | Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, from July 10, 2027 |
| Crypto firms are | Money services businesses | Financial institutions under the AML rules |
| Threshold to know | SAR at $2,000 | Full checks on a one-off crypto transaction of EUR 1,000 |
| Cash | Reported above $10,000 a day | Payments for goods and services capped at EUR 10,000 |
The EU numbers sit in Articles 19(3), 80 and 90 of the AML Regulation. For crypto, Article 79 goes a step further and bans anonymous accounts, “including through anonymity-enhancing coins.”
Who will police all this? Partly a new agency. AMLA, created by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 and based in Frankfurt, plans to choose 40 obliged entities during 2027, according to its FAQ, and to supervise them itself from 2028. By the end of 2027 it expects to have about 430 people.
Where people get it wrong
Many customers expect a reason when a transfer stalls. Sometimes the firm is not allowed to give one. Paragraph (d) of the US rule bars any money services business from disclosing a suspicious activity report “or any information that would reveal the existence of a SAR,” so a vague support reply may simply be the law talking.
Fake regulators are the other trap. AMLA says on its About page that it never contacts citizens to help with investigations, never steps into their transfers and “will not issue fines, fees or sanctions on individual citizens.” Anyone promising to recover lost money on its behalf is running what the agency calls an attempted scam. Real AMLA addresses end in amla.europa.eu.