You sent coins to an instant exchanger, the order page stopped moving, and then an email arrived asking for documents. The rules that allow this are public. ChangeNOW’s AML policy, for example, says:
“We use automated tools to review transactions for potential risks. If our system detects unusual patterns: the transaction may be placed on hold; the user may be asked for clarifications or documents; the case is reviewed individually by our team.”
ChangeNOW, AML/KYC policy, updated July 17, 2026 (source).
Short answer: an AML hold means an automated check flagged your deposit and a person now has to review it. If it already happened, answer only through the service’s official channel and ask for a timeline in writing. To avoid it next time, send from a wallet or account in your own name, keep records of where your coins came from, and use services that check before you send — and say up front what happens if a check fails.
What does “on hold for AML review” mean?
AML stands for anti-money laundering. Most exchangers run every deposit through a screening provider. The provider looks at the history of the coins and the addresses involved and returns a risk score. If the score crosses the service’s threshold, the order stops and goes to a human.
What gets flagged depends on the provider and on the service’s own settings, and neither is usually published. Common reasons include links to sanctioned addresses, hacks, scams, darknet markets or mixers, sometimes several transfers back. You may have done nothing wrong: coins you received from someone else can carry their history with them.
What do exchangers’ own rules say?
These are quotes from the services’ published policies, not our summary of how they behave in practice.
| Service | What its rules say |
|---|---|
| ChangeNOW | “If a transaction is marked suspicious by this system, the exchange is put on hold and the customer in question is then asked to confirm their identity.” If the client refuses, funds are “refunded to the address (or addresses) the deposit was made from, subtracting the network fees, within 24 hours.” |
| Changelly | “In case a transaction is spotted by our risk scoring system as suspicious, the transaction will be put on hold” |
| SimpleSwap | “SimpleSwap reserves the right to temporarily freeze any transaction if deemed necessary for the duration of a review or client checks.” Its terms add that “refund requests are processed during up to 31 (thirty-one) calendar days.” |
| FixedFloat | “If criminal funds are sent to our addresses, the funds may be frozen until information about the source and legality of the funds is received.” |
| Exolix | “Exolix reserves the right to suspend, delay, reject or cancel transactions until compliance review procedure is completed.” |
Two things stand out. First, a hold is normal under every one of these policies. Second, the policies differ a lot on what happens next: a quick refund, a review with documents, or a freeze until you prove the origin of the funds. That difference is worth knowing before you send.
My swap is already on hold. What should I do?
- Use only official channels. Reply to the email address on the order page or the service’s website. Never to a “support agent” who found you on Telegram, Reddit or X.
- Ask what exactly they need and by when. Ask for the list of documents and an expected timeline, in writing.
- Collect the paper trail. Transaction hashes, the address you sent from, and where the coins came from: an exchange withdrawal, a payment from a client, mining payouts. We explain how in what to send when an exchange asks for source of funds.
- Ask about a refund. Some policies offer a refund to the sending address if you’d rather not go through the review. Check the rules of your service.
- Never share your recovery phrase or pay an “unlock fee”. No legitimate review needs your recovery phrase, and paying a stranger to release funds is a scam.
How do you avoid an AML hold next time?
Nobody can promise a check will never flag a deposit. But you can lower the odds and make any review short:
- Send from your own wallet or an exchange account in your name. Not from a friend’s account, not from a P2P counterparty’s wallet.
- Know where your coins came from. Keep exchange statements, invoices and receipts for crypto you received. If a review happens, this is what you will be asked for.
- Be careful with coins from strangers. P2P deals with unknown counterparties are where tainted coins most often come from.
- Stay away from mixers and “cleaning” services. They don’t make coins look clean — mixers are one of the things screening providers flag first.
- Read the AML section before you send. Look for three things: what happens if a check fails (refund or freeze), how long it takes, and what it costs.
- Prefer checks before you send. It is much better to be told “no” before any coins move than after.
How BayChange handles checks
We built the flow so that a check either happens before your coins move, or ends with a refund to an address you chose:
- Before you send. We check your receiving address and your refund address against sanctions lists and stablecoin issuers’ blocklists before we show you a deposit address. If an address matches, we don’t create the order. No money has moved, so nothing gets stuck.
- After you send. The swap runs on a decentralized cross-chain protocol, and we never hold your funds. The protocol runs its own checks and may reject a deposit; a rejected deposit goes back to your refund address, minus network fees.
- What we can’t do. Stablecoin issuers (such as Tether for USDT) and authorities can freeze funds, and we can’t override them. And because we never hold your coins, we can’t freeze or release them ourselves either.
That’s also why the refund address matters: use a wallet you control, not an exchange deposit address. More in our help center.
If you want a swap where the checks happen before you send and a failed check ends in a refund, the form below is set to USDT on Tron → Bitcoin. No sign-up, no wallet connection needed, and the fee is shown before you send.
