Crypto businesses and platforms are facing increased pressure to comply with the Travel Rule and crypto regulations as regulators globally tighten the requirements. According to Sumsub’s 2026 Crypto Report, crypto is entering a regulated maturity era, with more regulatory scrutiny and more pressure to fight fraud in the years ahead. With that in mind, crypto firms are nowadays required to collect and verify transaction data in real time and to do it securely.
For Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs), this situation introduces a difficult balancing act: making sure that compliance across jurisdictions is met, without slowing down transactions or harming user experience.
This is where Sumsub’s Travel Rule solution comes in: helping crypto companies orchestrate protocols, counterparties, and regulatory requirements in one flow, replacing fragmented integrations with a scalable compliance tool.
Why companies need a Travel Rule solution
Travel Rule compliance stopped being a future problem a long time ago, as we’re seeing it enforced in many jurisdictions globally, from the EU to APAC and beyond. This kind of compliance requirement also sets several operational challenges for crypto platforms.
First, identifying counterparties is complex work. Companies need to determine whether a transaction involves another VASP or an unhosted wallet, and then apply different compliance flows accordingly.
Second, data exchange requirements inevitably create friction. Sender and recipient information is required, and it must be exchanged securely and quickly, often across different protocols and systems.
Third, many VASPs still struggle with cross-border compliance. Fragmented systems, inconsistent standards, and costly manual processes often make The Travel Rule feel like a burden rather than an enabler.
Companies often have delayed or failed transactions, more operational costs, and no interoperability since there’s no universal solution. For this reason, having an automated and scalable Travel Rule system that can give crypto firms multiple protocols and collaboration with different providers is crucial to staying compliant and on top of the competitive game.
How to choose the right Travel Rule solution
Travel Rule solutions are by no means built the same. Choosing the right solution is key for efficient compliance—and for maintaining a positive user experience.
Here are some of the important factors crypto firms should consider:
- Regulatory compliance coverage. At a minimum, the tool you choose should let you collect and transmit required originator and beneficiary data, perform AML screening, support unhosted wallet checks, and maintain audit-ready records. Without these baseline capabilities, companies risk failing core Travel Rule requirements.
- Operational efficiency. Beyond compliance, the solution should streamline workflows, including rule-based decisioning, payment reference checks, and inter-VASP messaging. Features like wallet address books and flexible rule configuration reduce manual workload and speed up transaction processing.
- Advanced orchestration and scaling. As operations grow, companies need forward-looking capabilities that support a long-term adaptability to change: support for multiple messaging protocols, blockchain analytics, and thresholds for triggering additional checks that you can customize.
- Global connectivity: A strong Travel Rule solution should be able to connect you to a wide network of VASPs globally and support multiple protocols, enabling you to have smooth communication across jurisdictions.
- Automation and speed: Look for solutions that automate data collection, verification, and exchange in order to minimize manual interventions and reduce transaction delays.
- Jurisdictional rule bundles. They handle Travel Rule compliance automatically, validating data and exchange requirements for each supported jurisdiction.
- Good risk assessment abilities: It’s important to have a solution that can effectively identify advanced counterparties. Also, wallet screening and risk scoring are essential for a quality Travel Rule solution.
- Support for unhosted wallets: Verifying the ownership of unhosted wallets becomes critical when regulators worldwide increase regulatory scrutiny.
- Scalability & integration: The solution should be able to integrate easily into your existing infrastructure and scale well with your transaction volumes and geographic expansion.
- Audit and reporting readiness: For Travel Rule solutions, comprehensive data storage and reporting tools are necessary to demonstrate compliance during audits.
These are only a few of the factors that make a Travel Rule tool an effective way of meeting compliance requirements. In Sumsub’s Travel Rule Buyer’s Guide, you can read about what kind of features an advanced Travel Rule solution should have.
What sets Sumsub’s Travel Rule apart
While many Travel Rule providers focus only on data exchange, Sumsub delivers a complete compliance ecosystem, with the ability to integrate into crypto platforms and connect them to a global system of VASPs. It has access to 2,100+ VASPs and $3.4T+ secured transactions, with these capabilities as an advantage:
- All-in-one platform
Travel Rule is fully integrated with KYC, AML screening, and transaction monitoring, which instantly eliminates the need for multiple vendors. - Smart routing and protocol orchestration
Sumsub automatically selects the fastest and most efficient way to exchange data between VASPs, which leads to reduced delays and failures. - Extensive VASP network
Sumsub has a large and continuously growing network of VASPs, so crypto firms benefit from higher transaction success rates and broader global coverage. - Advanced risk engine
The system has a multi-layered risk scoring that combines transaction data, counterparty insights, and compliance rules to aid in the decision-making process. - Counterparty identification
The solution lets you determine whether a transaction involves a VASP or an unhosted wallet and has several internal and external sources to help narrow down to the entity level. - Real-time sanctions and AML screening
You can screen all transactions’ participants against global watchlists in real time, so that you can prevent any suspicious activity before it escalates. - Unhosted wallet verification
Allows wallet holder to confirm ownership with 4 strong ownership proof methods embedded in transaction flow, including an automated Satoshi Test. - Customizable rules engine
Sumsub’s solution can customize workflows to fit specific jurisdictions or risk appetites, which greatly reduces manual work due to automation. - Audit-ready data trails
You can maintain complete, structured records of all Travel Rule data exchanges and compliance actions and be transparent and ready for regulatory audits at all times.
How clients benefit from Sumsub’s Travel Rule solution
Sumsub’s Travel Rule solution is already used by many companies across the crypto industry to help them stay compliant with the ever-evolving regulatory needs.
VALR: Keeping financial crime at bay through Travel Rule compliance
VALR is a global cryptocurrency exchange working to connect traditional finance and the world of digital assets through a full suite of products. The company faced the need to adapt, and quickly, once regulatory pressure increased and introduced new requirements for compliance. VALR needed to securely exchange originator and beneficiary information for crypto transactions once the Travel Rule became mandatory in South Africa in 2025.
Sumsub’s solution enabled VALR to unify its crypto compliance and handle the full crypto transaction lifecycle under the Travel Rule. Using Sumsub’s solution, VALR achieved:
- Seamless integration with global Travel Rule protocols
- Automated VASP attribution, protocol selection, and sanctions screening
- Flexible workflows to properly apply controls without overburdening teams
Gianluca Sacco
COO at VALR
Sumsub's Travel Rule solution has become a key part of our daily compliance workflow, particularly for outgoing crypto withdrawals. It supports both automation at scale and the oversight required for regulated financial infrastructure.
Guardarian: Mastering Travel Rule compliance with Sumsub
Guardarian is an exchange service provider for virtual assets. With the introduction and requirement of the Travel Rule in 2022-23, Guardarian needed a solution that would ensure they could effectively use the various protocols different regulators required.
By implementing Sumsub’s Travel Rule, Sumsub enabled the crypto firm to offer a more secure service and fully keep up with compliance requirements at the same time. Guardarian managed to:
- Automate Travel Rule data exchange
- Improve transaction success rates through better counterparty connectivity
- Reduce manual compliance workload
Petr Sergeev
CEO at Guardarian
We discovered that our long-time partner, Sumsub, was actively working on a solution for the Travel Rule as part of their Transaction Monitoring offering. Having already experienced top-notch service from Sumsub for customer verification, we opted for Sumsub over alternative Travel Rule services.
Sinegy: Scaling securely with Sumsub’s Travel Rule
Sinegy, one of Malaysia’s leading regulated digital asset exchanges, needed real-time control and visibility over outbound digital asset transfers. With increased transaction volumes, Sinegy needed a scalable and automated solution that would let it maintain regulator trust and stay ahead in the crypto world.
With Sumsub’s Travel Rule, the firm managed to improve its operational efficiency and keep the regulators happy by strengthening its compliance. Sinegy benefited from:
- Automated transaction screening improved the company’s efficiency
- Real-time monitoring and the proactive approach make Sinegy compliant and secure
- Wide VASP coverage and embedded Travel Rule SDK contributed to smoother workflows
Mr. Yeoh Shen-Hoei
Compliance Lead
Sumsub has been instrumental in fulfilling our regulatory requirements, providing a high level of assurance. The Travel Rule solution has not only significantly reduced the number of manual checks and eliminated human errors but has also streamlined our entire compliance workflow.
Results that speak for themselves
Different crypto platforms have changed fragmented, manual compliance for a streamlined and automated framework with Sumsub. The solution is able to support both regulatory requirements and the growth and scaling of companies using it. The crypto platforms using Sumsub’s Travel Rule all reported that the integration of the tool was easy and quick, and that the advantages in compliance, security, interoperability, and efficiency have proved notable.
Across Guardarian, VALR, Sinegy, and others, the results are clear:
- Improved counterparty coverage with access to worldwide VASP networks
- Faster and more reliable transaction exchange because of automation and smart routing
- Much reduced manual workload for compliance teams that results from unified workflows
- Stronger risk management due to the real-time screening and risk scoring
- Scalable compliance operations that support the companies’ needs to expand to new markets
Travel Rule strategies for stronger compliance
Since regulatory landscapes are always changing and evolving, companies need to take a step further from basic compliance and start having a more strategic approach to Travel Rule. The firms that treat Travel Rule as something that will give them a strategic advantage are more likely to expand to new markets and have no worry about staying compliant.
- Prioritize automation from the start. Manual processes don’t scale, which is why you have to automate data collection, verification, and exchange in order to handle transaction volumes efficiently.
- Build for global interoperability. Working with multiple protocols and jurisdictions is unavoidable—broad VASP connectivity will enable you to have smoother cross-border transactions.
- Integrate compliance into the full user journey. Travel Rule requirements shouldn’t disrupt the user experience, so embedding compliance into onboarding and transaction flows helps to reduce drop-offs.
- Strengthen counterparty risk assessment. Since transactions carry varying levels of risk, advanced scoring and screening tools help with more precise and effective decision-making.
- Prepare in advance for evolving regulations. Requirements around unhosted wallets and data sharing are still developing, and flexible systems can aid firms in staying ahead of these changes.
Following these guidelines, along with a robust Travel Rule solution, helps crypto companies stay compliant in the face of regulatory expectations and grow their business securely and confidently.