Wallet screening, honestly explained

"Screen the wallet" sounds like one check. It is actually three different questions with three different levels of certainty — and conflating them is how firms end up either blocking good customers or waving through bad money.

sanctionsCOMPLETEissuer freezeCOMPLETEtx integrityCOMPLETEprocessor evidenceMISSINGwallet ownershipPARTIALbehaviourCOMPLETEactor attributionNOT AVAILABLEsource of fundsNOT AVAILABLEtravel ruleMISSINGone honest status per dimension — never a single score

1. Is the address on an official sanctions list?

OFAC, UK OFSI and the EU publish specific cryptocurrency addresses tied to designated persons. This is the hardest signal there is: an exact match against an official list is a legal fact, not a vendor's opinion. It is also narrow — OFAC's own guidance says its list is not exhaustive, which is why screening must re-run whenever lists update, not just once at onboarding. KYTGate refreshes these lists daily, content-hashes each snapshot so you can prove which version you screened against, and re-screens your past counterparties every morning.

2. Has the stablecoin issuer frozen it?

Tether and Circle can freeze any address at the contract level — and they do, regularly, at law-enforcement request. A frozen address is an extraordinarily loud signal that no risk score conveys: the issuer of the asset itself has acted. This check is free, real-time, and read directly from the blockchain — there is no excuse for a compliance stack that skips it.

3. What does analytics attribution say?

Commercial vendors cluster addresses into entities — exchanges, mixers, ransomware operators — using proprietary intelligence. This is genuinely valuable and genuinely probabilistic: it is a vendor's assessment, not an official designation. Treat it as a reason to look closer, priced accordingly, and never as the sole basis for telling a customer their money is "dirty". KYTGate plugs these vendors in alongside the hard signals rather than replacing them.

THE HONEST HIERARCHY
Official list matchlegal fact — act immediately
Issuer freezeissuer has acted — treat as hard signal
No known matchexactly that. NOT a clean bill of health
Analytics scorevendor opinion — investigate, don't auto-block

Try it on a real address

Our free wallet sanctions check runs the two hard checks — official list data and live USDT/USDC freeze status — on any Ethereum or Tron address, instantly and without signup. For screening every deposit automatically, with your own policy and signed evidence, request early access.

General information, not legal or compliance advice.