Have I Been Pwned to stop crypto donations over Travel Rule

Troy Hunt, the creator of Have I Been Pwned, announced he will stop accepting cryptocurrency donations after Coinbase requested detailed sender information to redeem a roughly $6 tip.

Coinbase notified Hunt that “new Australian regulations require information about the sender when you receive crypto outside Coinbase.” To unlock the funds, Hunt was asked to provide the sender’s full name, country of residence, identification number, home address and date of birth.

Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, began enforcing Travel Rule requirements for virtual asset service providers on July 1. The rule requires providers to collect and, in some cases, transmit identifying information about senders and recipients of crypto transactions to help counter money laundering and terrorism financing.

An analyst group, 21 Analytics, said the duty to transmit Travel Rule information mainly applies to exchanges and other hosted wallet providers. The group added that self-hosted wallets do not have a duty to transmit Travel Rule data, although obligations to collect and verify information may still apply.

Hunt wrote that meeting Coinbase’s request was impractical for small, anonymous tips. He posted that “That’s the second crypto donation I’ve had this year and it’s about 6 bucks so no, trying to move the whole circus someone else doesn’t make sense. And everywhere is tightening KYC requirements.”

Hunt plans to remove crypto addresses from Have I Been Pwned’s donation page and return to PayPal for donations.

The enforcement change affects people and organisations that rely on hosted exchanges to process incoming crypto. Operators using those services may need to collect detailed personal data from senders before funds are released, even for small amounts.