About BTC Markets
BTC Markets is an Australian cryptocurrency exchange that offers a secure trading platform for investors and businesses interested in buying or selling cryptocurrencies across Australia.
Established in 2013, the Melbourne-based BTC Markets allows cryptocurrency trades in real time. Customers can buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and many other cryptocurrencies with instant AUD deposits.
“BTC Markets voluntarily adopted a KYC program many years ahead of AUSTRAC’s regulation of the Australian digital currency exchange sector. By becoming the first cryptocurrency exchange to be certified by ADCA, BTC Markets made a pioneering effort to demonstrate to independent auditors and ADCA that best-practice standards had been achieved ahead of time.”
Nick Giurietto, CEO & Managing Director, Australian Digital Commerce Association (ADCA)
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The Challenge
With the exponential growth in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, BTC Markets’ customer base had increased dramatically in the last two years. This rapid growth presented operational challenges for BTC Markets as it attempted to meet the demand and improve the customer experience on its exchange platform.
To add to the challenge, cryptocurrency exchanges such as BTC were facing the possibility of being regulated in Australia under Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) laws as legislators sought to counter the growing threat of digital currencies being used by organised crime groups to conduct fraudulent transactions and fund terrorist activities.
The proposed laws which required digital currencies to be treated the same as physical cash within a bank, would require businesses that offered digital currency exchange services to identify and verify their customers.
The Solution
In anticipation of falling under AML/CTF regulations and in an effort to build a culture of compliance, BTC Markets chose to proactively address its compliance obligations. To ensure compliance with existing KYC requirements, BTC Markets chose to partner with greenID and deploy its greenID platform to provide ID verification during onboarding to meet Know Your Customer (KYC) rules under the proposed AML/CTF regulation.
The partnership aimed to help BTC Markets scale onboarding efforts and keep pace with customer signup requests spurred by a spike in digital currency interest.
BTC Market worked very closely with the greenID team to establish an automated verification solution to deal with its volumes whilst improving online user experience and keeping customer information protected in line with BTC Markets’ Privacy Policy.
Its compliance-driven culture enabled BTC Markets to become the first fully certified digital currency exchange in Australia with the Australian Digital Commerce Association (ADCA). BTC Markets was granted gold certification by the ADCA committee on the 16th of February 2018. The ADCA (https://adca.asn.au) mark of certification helps consumers identify digital currency businesses that have best practice standards in place.
