Coinbase, Fidelity, Robinhood Join TRUST AML Platform

Cryptocurrency firms Coinbase, Fidelity Digital Assets and Robinhood are among 18 virtual asset service providers (VASPs) joining the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) platform that’s working to ensure digital assets comply with global anti-money laundering (AML) rules, CoinDesk reported Wednesday (Feb. 16).

TRUST comes as a response to AML data-sharing requirements recommended by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and handed down by the U.S. government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the report said.

Other members of the TRUST are Anchorage, Avanti, Bitgo, bitFlyer, Bittrex, BlockFi, Circle, Gemini, Kraken, Paxos, Standard Custody & Trust, Symbridge, Tradestation, Zero Hash and Zodia Custody.

TRUST had been known in crypto AML circles as the U.S. Travel Rule Working Group, with Coinbase leading the engineering and a founding group including Gemini, BitGo, Kraken, Circle and Fidelity.

“There are two components to this solution,” Gemini Chief Compliance Officer Elena Hughes told CoinDesk. “There’s the ability to identify who’s on the other side of the transfer prior to initiating it. Secondly, there’s no centralized storage of personal data.

“We don’t send it via a centralized repository. Instead, the information is exchanged on a bilateral basis,” she said.

TRUST is looking to expand beyond the U.S. into other geographic regions, starting with Canada, Singapore and Germany, with the goal of becoming an industry standard for complying with the travel rule, the report said.

Related: FSB Sounds the Alarm of Crypto Assets’ Growing Threats

Meanwhile, the Financial Stability Board warned in an updated report on financial stability risks that crypto assets could grow to a point where they would pose a great risk to global financial stability, causing structural vulnerabilities and “increasing interconnectedness with the traditional financial system.”

In the report, FSB regulators — European Central Bank, Bank of England and Federal Reserve — warn the threat “could escalate rapidly and calls for timely and pre-emptive evaluation of possible policy responses.”