Travel Rule

The Travel Rule is a regulatory requirement, derived from Financial Action Task Force guidance, that obliges financial institutions to share certain sender and recipient information when transmitting funds above set thresholds. Applied to crypto, it generally requires exchanges and similar providers to pass along originator and beneficiary details for qualifying transfers between regulated firms, with the goal of making it harder to move illicit funds anonymously.

A common misconception is that it applies to every transaction or to private wallet-to-wallet transfers; scope, thresholds, and treatment of self-hosted wallets vary by jurisdiction and are handled differently across regions.