Wallet Intelligence (KYW)

Wallet Intelligence, also called KYW or Know Your Wallet, helps compliance teams understand what kind of wallet they are dealing with before or during a transaction review. It classifies a wallet as custodial, non-custodial, or unknown, explains the signal behind that classification, and independently checks whether the address is associated with an agent or shows meaningful automated behaviour.

KYW is designed to answer a practical compliance question:

Is this wallet likely controlled by a regulated service provider, by the customer directly, or is there not enough information to decide?

This matters because custodial and non-custodial wallets often require different handling in Travel Rule, MiCA, and internal AML workflows.

KYW checks a wallet address and returns:

• the likely wallet type: custodial, non-custodial, or unknown
• a confidence level
• the reason for the classification
• an independent agentic-behaviour result, with its own confidence and attribution
• an audit reference
• entity and risk information when CryptoSwift can identify the wallet owner or related entity

This lets an operations or compliance user decide which workflow should happen next.

CryptoSwift combines multiple signals instead of relying on a single source:

• Previous wallet verification - If the wallet has already completed self-hosted wallet verification, KYW can classify it as non-custodial with high confidence.
• Known platform wallets - If the wallet is registered by a CryptoSwift platform tenant, KYW can connect it to a known organization.
• Partner-network information - When available, network data can help identify the wallet owner.
• Blockchain analytics - If enabled, analytics can identify known services, entity types, and risk signals.
• Known wallet applications - Some entities are self-hosted wallet apps rather than custodians, so KYW treats them as non-custodial.
• Behavioral heuristics - If no owner is found, KYW looks for wallet behavior patterns that suggest private-key ownership, automated custodial behavior, or insufficient evidence.

The result includes a human-readable reason so the classification can be explained during review or audit.

CryptoSwift KYW also detects agentic behaviour: activity associated with registered agents or wallets that appear to operate through software-driven automation. These wallets may initiate, receive, or react to transactions without a person manually approving each individual action.

This visibility is useful because agentic wallets introduce a different operating context for compliance teams. Detection can help you:

• identify when a counterparty is a registered autonomous agent rather than a conventional user wallet
• recognize machine-speed or continuously operating transaction patterns that may need different monitoring or review thresholds
• distinguish deterministic agent attribution from behavior that only suggests automation
• add agentic context to transaction monitoring, counterparty due diligence, and case triage
• retain an auditable record of what CryptoSwift detected when a decision was made

Agentic detection is not a risk verdict. A registered or automated wallet is not inherently suspicious, and the result should be evaluated together with transaction risk, sanctions screening, customer information, and the purpose of the transaction.

Agentic behaviour is a separate result dimension from wallet type. An automated wallet can be custodial, non-custodial, or unknown, and agenticBehaviour.detected does not itself define walletType. Some transaction patterns, such as high volume or automated sweeping, can contribute evidence to both analyses, but each result has its own score, confidence, verification status, and attribution.

KYW uses two methods:

1. ERC-8004 registry attribution - On supported networks, KYW checks whether the requested wallet is registered as an ERC-8004 agent. Only an exact wallet-address and network match is accepted. This deterministic match returns isVerified: true and a confidence score of 100.
2. Behavioral automation analysis - KYW analyzes available transaction history for patterns such as unusually high transaction frequency, round-the-clock activity, repeated destinations or contract interactions, highly regular timing, rapid reactions after incoming transfers, and repeated sweeping to a dominant destination. Behavioral evidence can indicate software-controlled activity, but it does not prove that the wallet belongs to an AI agent. Behavioral results therefore always return isVerified: false.

ERC-8004 attribution takes precedence when both methods produce a positive result.

Use KYW before releasing funds to the destination wallet.

1. The customer enters a destination wallet address.
2. Your system calls KYW.
3. If the wallet looks custodial, continue with counterparty VASP identification and the Travel Rule message flow.
4. If the wallet looks non-custodial, apply your self-hosted wallet policy. This may include wallet verification, additional customer questions, or a threshold-based review.
5. If the wallet is unknown, route it to the fallback path defined by your policy.

Use KYW when a deposit arrives without enough Travel Rule context or when the customer says the funds came from a self-hosted wallet.

KYW can help operations decide whether to:

• ask the customer for missing Travel Rule or source-of-funds information
• run wallet verification before releasing funds
• route the case to manual review
• treat the wallet as likely custodial and continue counterparty identification

Confidence should be read together with the attribution reason. A high-confidence classification from a completed wallet verification is stronger than a low-confidence heuristic result.

Agentic results should be interpreted separately:

Store the KYW result alongside the transaction or case record:

• wallet address and blockchain
• wallet type
• confidence and confidence score
• attribution reason and reason code
• the complete agenticBehaviour result, including detection, verification, confidence, and attribution fields
• entity details when present
• risk score when present
• KYW audit log ID
• timestamp and operator or automated rule that used the result

This gives your compliance team a clear record of what information was available when the decision was made.

KYW works best when it is connected to explicit rules:

• which transaction thresholds require KYW
• when non-custodial wallets require proof of ownership
• when unknown wallets should be blocked, reviewed, or allowed with extra information
• how long a KYW result can be reused before checking again
• which confidence levels are acceptable for automated decisions
• whether verified ERC-8004 agents require a dedicated workflow
• when unverified behavioral automation should trigger review or enhanced monitoring

For higher-risk transactions, combine KYW with transaction monitoring, sanctions checks, Travel Rule message status, and customer due diligence data.

• Introducing KYW - Know Your Wallet
• Wallet Intelligence technical integration guide
• Wallet Verification
• Get Wallet Intelligence API reference