PureFi is the only DeFi AML protocol for cryptocurrency onboarding. Developed by AMLBot in partnership with Hacken, and Crystal it aims to provide a full-cycle solution for cryptoasset analytics and AML/KYC procedures on the DeFi market.
PureFi will connect to the AML providers through oracles and provide cryptoassets analytics in order to protect liquidity pool users and honest market players from “dirty money” risks. For example the liquidity pool user will be able to avoid the risk of getting an illegal money trail using the Verifiable Credentials certificate with his full-fledged AML/KYC data.
The protocol will include a wide range of risk indicators to liquidity pools users and DEXs, reporting suspicious activity with enhanced due diligence. Moreover, the risk scoring methodology applied by PureFi can be fully customizable through DAO voting to fit the further regulation requirements.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has become more and more popular in the past few months. DeFi refers to all financial technologies that use blockchains and cryptocurrencies with the same aim in mind: to make cryptocurrency decentralized and independent from regulation by any financial agencies.
Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), yield farming, stablecoins, lending platforms, wrapped coins and prediction markets are the most popular DeFi projects. The Ethereum blockchain serves as the base for the majority of applications.
DEX (decentralized exchange) is a blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) online service that allows users to make direct cryptocurrency transactions between each other. DEXs don’t require users to pass know-your-customer (KYC) and are not custodian entities, unlike centralized exchanges. DEXs only provides the protocol that enables transactions. To be clear, users can easily create wallets and start trading without disclosing personal data.
According to the statistics, by Q1 '21 the overall monthly trade volume has almost tripled compared to the one as of December 2020 ($25 billion). The average daily DEX trade volume grew from $0.71 billion to $2.26 billion — a quarterly rise of 318%. Uniswap, the most popular DEX at the moment, had more volume than Coinbase, the most credible Centralized Exchange of the whole cryptomarket.
All that’s happening put DeFi under the radar of regulators and governments. Since most DeFi platforms ignore Know-Your-Customer (KYC) or Anti-Money Laundering (AML) procedures, they begin to foresee such transactions as a new haven for illegal activities.
In this context, the FATF declares to the G20 that jurisdictions must update requirements in order to implement AML/CFT mitigating measures. Furthermore, a new draft of the European Commission MiCa could restrict EU citizens from accessing DeFi projects. At least if they do not agree with the proposed strict legal regulations.
Since the fast growth of DeFi and DEXs has triggered huge attention in terms of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) risks, the lack of KYC and AML procedures became a crucial problem.
This is easily explained by the following significant factors:
The statistics demonstrate that money laundering via DeFi is increasing - about $34 million of DeFi transactions in 2020 were conducted by criminal actors. Chainalysis forecasts and predicts exponential growth of illegal activity on the DeFi market and this causes another huge market problem - DEXs are regarded as dangerous by institutional investors and credible financial players around the world.