General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; check the authorities in your country. Status 23 October 2026.
When you buy bitcoin on an exchange, you are asked for ID. That comes from anti-money-laundering (aml) law, not from Bitcoin.
Three layers
- KYC: the exchange must verify who you are (kyc).
- Monitoring: it must watch for suspicious transactions and report them.
- travel rule: when it sends crypto for you, it must pass your details to the receiving provider.
Who sets the standard
The FATF, an intergovernmental body, writes the global standards. Countries turn them into law. In FATF's June 2025 update, 85 of 117 responding jurisdictions had travel-rule laws, up from 65 in 2024, but enforcement was still patchy.
Norway
Crypto exchanges had to register with Finanstilsynet under the AML regulation from 15 October 2018. From 1 July 2025 that registration was replaced by MiCA licensing, and the AML regulation sets a NOK 8,000 threshold for certain crypto transactions.
Where the rules stop
AML law binds businesses. The Bitcoin network has no accounts, no customer list and no one to call. Holding your own keys or paying someone directly peer-to-peer is not a regulated service in itself.
The problem these rules aim at is real: crime. Bitcoin's answer is not to hide from the rules but to make the regulated gatekeeper optional.