Navigating Criminal Liability of Crypto Exchange Platforms: The Role of Blockchain Analytics in Ensuring Compliance

Manuel Santos Mailland
2025

Abstract

Today, cryptoassets are disrupting the financial and banking world, as well as many other aspects of society, especially crimes. Their inherent characteristics have allowed them to be used in many different types of crimes, including money laundering and other white-collar crimes. From these type of operations, a key player arises, called exchange platforms. These companies, that provide for a user-friendly door to the crypto environment, are sometimes used by launderers to introduce illegal funds and swap them into cryptocurrencies. They have assumed a position of ‘gate-keepers’ that cannot pass unnoticed. From this context, we will analyse how cryptocurrencies were born, how they work, why they are being used in money laundering operations, the role that exchange platforms play in such operations, if they have some sort of corporate criminal liability, and lastly, analyse their compliance requirements, with a special focus on blockchain analytics tools, and if they provide for solid grounds for exclusion of liability.

Author Bio

Lawyer, two masters degrees, several academic publications and professor in both undergraduate and graduate level, Manuel Santos has extensive experience in the field of AML/KYC, having worked for 8 years in Argentina's AML judiciary office, currently working in a fintech company from Luxembourg.