sources/kyc-aml: index

Bitcoin Research — Law, Regulation, Markets & Origins (2026)

Kyc Aml

2026-10-09

Document text

Research, not advice. Part of the Bitcoin research archive (October 2026). Claims labelled unverified, contested or fringe are reported, not endorsed; statuses of bills and rules are as of the date checked. Government, court and patent records are public domain; the research notes are CC BY 4.0.

sources/kyc-aml: index

Full copies of government and court documents behind legislation/us-kyc-aml-selling-bitcoin.md and market/2026-10-09-walk-in-bitcoin-shops.md. Everything was retrieved on 2026-10-09 by an automated fetch from this Mac. The fetches used a normal browser User-Agent, waited at least 2 seconds between requests to the same site and 10 seconds for law.cornell.edu (its Crawl-delay), and respected robots.txt. Where a .txt sits next to a .html or .pdf, it is a plain-text extraction of that same file for searching. Scanned PDFs were read with macOS Vision OCR; those .txt files say so on their first line. Research, not legal advice.

Related copies saved by other researchers (not duplicated here): FinCEN 2013 guidance FIN-2013-G001 in sources/fincen/; the 2026-10-06 withdrawal of the unhosted-wallet proposal in sources/fincen-wallet-rule/; kiosk-operator lawsuits and orders (Iowa AG, D.C. AG v. Athena, Missouri AG v. CoinFlip, WA DFI v. CoinFlip, Nebraska LB 609, Kansas, the TDFI bulletin) and DOJ Paxful releases in sources/exchanges/.

Federal regulations (eCFR, "up to date as of 10/07/2026")

Title Issuer Date URL File
31 CFR Part 1022: Rules for Money Services Businesses (AML program 1022.210, SAR 1022.320, registration 1022.380) Treasury / FinCEN (eCFR) current to 2026-10-07 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-X/part-1022 ecfr-31-CFR-part-1022-MSBs.html/.txt
31 CFR 1010.100: Definitions (incl. (ff)(5) money transmitter) FinCEN same https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-31/section-1010.100 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.100.*
31 CFR 1010.306: Filing of reports (CTR within 15 days) FinCEN same …/section-1010.306 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.306.*
31 CFR 1010.311: CTR over $10,000 FinCEN same …/section-1010.311 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.311.*
31 CFR 1010.312: Identification required FinCEN same …/section-1010.312 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.312.*
31 CFR 1010.313: Aggregation FinCEN same …/section-1010.313 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.313.*
31 CFR 1010.314: Structured transactions FinCEN same …/section-1010.314 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.314.*
31 CFR 1010.410: Funds-transfer records (e) and Travel Rule (f), $3,000 FinCEN same …/section-1010.410 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.410.*
31 CFR 1010.430: Record retention (5 years) FinCEN same …/section-1010.430 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.430.*
31 CFR 1010.520: Information sharing (314(a)) FinCEN same …/section-1010.520 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.520.*
31 CFR 1010.821: Inflation-adjusted BSA penalties (5330(e) = $10,556 from 2025-01-17) FinCEN same …/section-1010.821 ecfr-31-CFR-1010.821.*
31 CFR 501.601: OFAC recordkeeping (10 years) Treasury / OFAC same …/section-501.601 ecfr-31-CFR-501.601.*
31 CFR 501.603: Blocked-property reports OFAC same …/section-501.603 ecfr-31-CFR-501.603.*
31 CFR 501.604: Rejected-transaction reports OFAC same …/section-501.604 ecfr-31-CFR-501.604.*

Federal statutes (US Code, 2023 edition via GovInfo)

Title Issuer URL File
18 U.S.C. 1960: Prohibition of unlicensed money transmitting businesses GPO / GovInfo https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title18/html/USCODE-2023-title18-partI-chap95-sec1960.htm usc-18-1960.*
31 U.S.C. 5330: Registration of money transmitting businesses GPO / GovInfo https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title31/html/USCODE-2023-title31-subtitleIV-chap53-subchapII-sec5330.htm usc-31-5330.*
31 U.S.C. 5324: Structuring GPO / GovInfo https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2023-title31/html/USCODE-2023-title31-subtitleIV-chap53-subchapII-sec5324.htm usc-31-5324.*

(uscode.house.gov showed an "Under Maintenance" page on 2026-10-09, so GovInfo was used.)

Federal guidance, notices, Federal Register

Title Issuer Date URL File
FIN-2019-G001, Application of FinCEN's Regulations to Certain Business Models Involving CVCs FinCEN 2019-05-09 https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/FinCEN%20Guidance%20CVC%20FINAL%20508.pdf 2019-05-09-FinCEN-FIN-2019-G001-CVC-guidance.pdf/.txt
FIN-2025-NTC1, Notice on the Use of CVC Kiosks for Scam Payments and Other Illicit Activity FinCEN 2025-08-04 https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/2025-08/FinCEN-Notice-CVCKIOSK.pdf 2025-08-04-FinCEN-FIN-2025-NTC1-CVC-kiosk-notice.pdf/.txt
Money Services Business (MSB) Registration (web page; Form 107 rules) FinCEN retrieved 2026-10-09 https://www.fincen.gov/resources/money-services-business-msb-registration FinCEN-MSB-registration-page.*
Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry Treasury / OFAC October 2021 https://ofac.treasury.gov/media/913571/download?inline 2021-10-15-OFAC-sanctions-compliance-guidance-virtual-currency.pdf/.txt (the date in the filename is the publication month; the exact day was not checked)
AML/CFT Programs, proposed rule (91 FR 18704, FR Doc 2026-07033) FinCEN 2026-04-10 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-04-10/pdf/2026-07033.pdf 2026-04-10-FR-2026-07033-FinCEN-AML-CFT-program-NPRM.*
Form 107 (RMSB) information collection, renewal without change (91 FR 23348) FinCEN 2026-04-30 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-04-30/pdf/2026-08363.pdf 2026-04-30-FR-2026-08363-FinCEN-Form-107-renewal-notice.*
Southwest-border MSB Geographic Targeting Order, $1,000–$10,000 cash (91 FR 56776) FinCEN 2026-09-04 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-09-04/pdf/2026-18194.pdf 2026-09-04-FR-2026-18194-FinCEN-southwest-border-MSB-GTO.*
"Ending Regulation by Prosecution" (Deputy Attorney General memorandum) DOJ 2025-04-07 https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1395781/dl?inline 2025-04-07-DOJ-DAG-memo-Ending-Regulation-by-Prosecution.pdf/.txt

Federal enforcement

Title Issuer Date URL File
FinCEN Penalizes Peer-to-Peer Virtual Currency Exchanger (Eric Powers), press release FinCEN 2019-04-18 https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-penalizes-peer-peer-virtual-currency-exchanger-violations-anti-money 2019-04-18-FinCEN-news-Eric-Powers-P2P-exchanger-penalty.*
Assessment of Civil Money Penalty, In re Eric Powers FinCEN 2019-04-18 https://www.fincen.gov/system/files/enforcement_action/2019-04-18/Assessment%20Eric%20Powers%20Final%20for%20Posting%2004.18.19_1.pdf 2019-04-18-FinCEN-assessment-Eric-Powers.pdf/.txt
Los Angeles-area man agrees to plead guilty … unlicensed Bitcoin exchange and ATM (Kunal Kalra) ICE / HSI 2019-08-23 https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/los-angeles-area-man-agrees-plead-guilty-federal-narcotics-money-laundering-charges 2019-08-23-ICE-HSI-Kunal-Kalra-plea-agreement.*
Los Angeles-area man admits operating unlicensed ATM network … (Kais Mohammad, Herocoin) ICE / HSI 2020-07-22 https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/los-angeles-area-man-admits-operating-unlicensed-atm-network-laundered-millions 2020-07-22-ICE-HSI-Herocoin-Kais-Mohammad-plea-agreement.*
HSI probe results in 2-year prison sentence … (Herocoin) ICE / HSI 2021-05-28 https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/hsi-probe-results-2-year-prison-sentence-orange-county-man-who-operated-illegal-atm 2021-05-28-ICE-HSI-Herocoin-Kais-Mohammad-sentenced.*
Los Angeles-area man who ran multimillion-dollar unlicensed Bitcoin exchange business sentenced (Hugo Sergio Mejia) ICE / HSI 2021-11-18 https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/los-angeles-area-man-who-ran-multimillion-dollar-unlicensed-bitcoin-exchange-business 2021-11-18-ICE-HSI-Hugo-Mejia-unlicensed-bitcoin-exchange-sentenced.*

Court opinions

Title Court Date URL File
United States v. Freeman, No. 23-1839 US Court of Appeals, First Circuit 2025-07-29 https://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/files/opnfiles/23-1839P-01A.pdf 2025-07-29-US-v-Freeman-1st-Cir-23-1839-opinion.pdf/.txt
United States v. Goklu, No. 24-767 US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit 2026-04-07 https://ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OPN/24-767_opn.pdf 2026-04-07-US-v-Goklu-2d-Cir-24-767-opinion.pdf/.txt

(The Freeman link came from one CourtListener API search; CourtListener's robots.txt disallows generic crawlers, so it was not used again. The PDF itself was fetched from the First Circuit's own site.)

New York

Title Issuer Date URL File
23 NYCRR Part 200, Virtual Currencies (BitLicense), §§ 200.1–200.22 NYDFS (text via Cornell LII, sourced from the official NYCRR) adopted 2015-06-24; retrieved 2026-10-09 https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/new-york/title-23/chapter-I/part-200 23-NYCRR-Part-200-BitLicense-via-LII.txt

NYDFS's own site and nysenate.gov returned Cloudflare challenges to automated requests. NY Banking Law §§ 641 and 643, and bills S 9891-B and S 8901, were read through a summarizing fetch and are cited in the legislation file, not saved.

Nevada

Title Issuer Date URL File
NRS Chapter 671, Money Transmission Nevada Legislature (LCB) rev. 2026-04-15 (incl. 2025 amendments) https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-671.html NRS-671-money-transmitters.html/.txt
NAC Chapter 671, Money Transmitters Nevada Legislature (LCB) retrieved 2026-10-09 https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NAC/NAC-671.html NAC-671-money-transmitters.*
Assembly Bill 21 (2023), money transmission modernization (enrolled text as posted by FID) Nevada Legislature / FID 2023 https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Licensing/Money_Transmitter/AB21.pdf 2023-Nevada-AB21-money-transmission-modernization.pdf/.txt
Regulation R121-23 (AB 21 implementing regulation), scanned Nevada FID 2023–24 https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Opinion/R121-23%20AB21.pdf Nevada-FID-R121-23-regulation-AB21.pdf (scanned; not OCR'd)
Money Transmitters licensing page Nevada FID retrieved 2026-10-09 https://fid.nv.gov/licensing/money-transmitters/ Nevada-FID-money-transmitters-page.*
In re Athena Bitcoin, Inc.: Administrative Complaint (unlicensed kiosks; $10,000) Nevada FID 2025-04-17 https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Opinion/Athena%20Bitcoin%20Inc%20-%20Admin%20Complaint%204.17.25.pdf 2025-04-17-Nevada-FID-Athena-Bitcoin-administrative-complaint.pdf/.txt (OCR)
In re Athena Bitcoin, Inc.: Consent Order ($10,000) Nevada FID 2025-05-15 https://www.fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Opinion/Athen%20Bitcoin%20Inc%20-%20Consent%20Order%205.15.25.pdf 2025-05-15-Nevada-FID-Athena-Bitcoin-consent-order.pdf/.txt (OCR)
In re Bitcoin Depot Operating LLC: Administrative Complaint (late audited financials) Nevada FID 2026-01-20 https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Opinion/Bitcoin%20Depot%20Operating%20Administrative%20Complaint%201.20.26.pdf 2026-01-20-Nevada-FID-Bitcoin-Depot-administrative-complaint.pdf/.txt (OCR)
In re Knack Kiosk LLC: Consent Order (kiosk run on a lapsed licence; $500) Nevada FID 2026-02-02 https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Opinion/Knack%20Kiosk%20LLC%20Consent%20Order%202.2.26.pdf 2026-02-02-Nevada-FID-Knack-Kiosk-consent-order.pdf/.txt
In re Bitcoin Depot Operating LLC: Consent Order ($10,000) Nevada FID 2026-03-11 https://fid.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/fidnvgov/content/Opinion/Bitcoin%20Depot%20Operating%20LLC%20-%20Consent%20Order%203.11.26.pdf 2026-03-11-Nevada-FID-Bitcoin-Depot-consent-order.pdf/.txt (OCR)

Other states (kiosk laws and orders)

Title Issuer Date URL File
Tennessee Public Chapter 766 (HB 2505 / SB 2251), virtual currency kiosk ban Tennessee Secretary of State signed 2026-04-13; effective 2026-07-01 https://publications.tnsosfiles.com/acts/114/pub/pc0766.pdf 2026-04-13-Tennessee-Public-Chapter-766-virtual-currency-kiosk-ban.pdf/.txt
HB 2505 bill history (text extract of the bill-info page) Tennessee General Assembly retrieved 2026-10-09 https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2505&GA=114 2026-Tennessee-HB2505-bill-history.txt
Minnesota Laws 2026, chapter 65 (SF 3868), virtual currency kiosks prohibited Minnesota Revisor of Statutes signed 2026-05-05 https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2026/0/Session+Law/Chapter/65/ 2026-05-05-Minnesota-Laws-2026-ch65-SF3868-kiosk-ban.*
Consent Order entered with Coinme, Inc. (32 states + D.C. + Puerto Rico; kiosk exit; $2.5M) Georgia Department of Banking and Finance 2026-10-08 (order 2026-10-07) https://dbf.georgia.gov/press-releases/2026-10-08/consent-order-entered-coinme-inc 2026-10-08-Georgia-DBF-Coinme-multistate-consent-order-press-release.*

Blocked to automated fetching on 2026-10-09 (to open by hand in Chrome)

  • NYDFS: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/virtual_currency_businesses and the licensed-entity list (Cloudflare)
  • California leginfo, Fin. Code § 3902: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FIN&sectionNum=3902 (Cloudflare)
  • DFPI kiosk-operator page: https://dfpi.ca.gov/ (403)
  • DOJ press releases for Tetley, Freeman, Goklu, Faiella (justice.gov bot challenge), e.g. https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/bitcoin-maven-sentenced-one-year-federal-prison-bitcoin-money-laundering-case, https://www.justice.gov/usao-nh/pr/ian-freeman-sentenced-8-years-prison-operating-bitcoin-money-laundering-scheme, https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/queens-man-sentenced-16-months-prison-laundering-bitcoin-and-operating-unlicensed
  • DEA release on Tetley: https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2018/07/09/bitcoin-maven-sentenced-federal-prison-virtual-currency-money-laundering (Access Denied)
  • State v. Espinoza (Fla. 3d DCA 2019): https://law.justia.com/cases/florida/third-district-court-of-appeal/2019/3d16-1860.html (403)
  • FinCEN MSB registrant search (robots.txt disallows all): https://msb.fincen.gov/
  • CoinATMRadar listings (Cloudflare); Bellingham Herald, Sun-Sentinel, NY Post, Business Insider, bizjournals (blocked)