Start an AML and KYC Compliance Consultancy for Crypto Companies

1. 1

   Map your existing skills onto the crypto stack

   The frameworks are the ones you know: BSA/AML program pillars, KYC and CDD, sanctions screening, SAR filing. The crypto layer adds FinCEN's convertible virtual currency guidance, the FATF Travel Rule (originator and beneficiary data moving with transfers between VASPs), blockchain analytics tooling, and state money transmitter examination practices. A certification (CAMS plus a crypto specialty credential) signals the translation is complete.

2. 2

   Choose your client tier

   Startups pre-launch need programs built from zero (policies, risk assessments, officer training); growth-stage companies need monitoring tuned, backlogs cleared, and exam prep; established firms need independent reviews (a regulatory expectation) and remediation after findings. Each tier is a different offer at a different price; start where your background is most credible.

3. 3

   Build the productized core offer

   The compliance program buildout: enterprise-wide risk assessment, written AML/KYC policies, vendor selection for identity verification and chain analytics, transaction monitoring rule design, Travel Rule solution integration, and training. Fixed scopes of $15,000 to $75,000 by company complexity, with the independent annual review as the recurring follow-on.

4. 4

   Stand behind audits, not just documents

   Paper programs fail exams. Differentiate by testing what you build: sample transaction lookbacks, alert quality reviews, and mock examinations that find the gaps before a state examiner or bank partner does. Companies that survive an exam on your program become permanent references.

5. 5

   Fish where the pressure is

   Your buyers act on deadlines: a banking partner demanding a program, a state license application requiring one, an auditor finding, or an enforcement action next door. Relationships with fintech law firms, banking-as-a-service providers, and crypto accountants put you at the moment of pressure; content on exam trends and enforcement actions makes you findable in the panic search.

6. 6

   Scale into a fractional compliance firm

   The natural evolution: fractional BSA officer retainers (many licensees need a named, qualified officer function they cannot yet hire full-time), a bench of analyst subcontractors for lookbacks and alert clearing, and eventually a niche firm brand. Mind the line: you advise and staff programs; formal legal opinions belong to counsel you partner with.

Do not take our word for the money. Put your own numbers in and see what this idea has to earn before it works. Free, instant, no account needed.