General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; check the authorities in your country. Status 23 October 2026.
The EU Transfer of Funds Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1113) applies the travel rule to crypto from 30 December 2024. There is no minimum amount between providers.
Provider to provider
The sending provider must send names, addresses and account details of sender and recipient. The receiving provider checks the data and can reject or return transfers that lack it.
To or from your own wallet
- The rules apply only when a provider is involved. A payment between two self-hosted wallets is outside them.
- The provider collects the details from its own customer. It is not, in principle, required to verify the other side.
- Above €1,000, it must assess whether the self-hosted address is owned or controlled by its customer.
- EBA guidelines list methods such as signing a message with the address key or sending a small test amount.
The trade-off
Regulators want to trace crime. Privacy advocates point out that providers then hold maps of their customers' self-custody addresses. Bitcoin's answer is narrow but real: once your coins are in your own wallet, payments to others are peer-to-peer and outside the rule.
Tip: proving ownership by signing a message never requires revealing your seed phrase.