Important adjustments to the CHF 1000 (EUR 1000) limit
At Pocket, we enable a simple way to purchase Bitcoin within set limits – without any complicated identification process. The identification takes place through the transmitted bank transfer.
This regulation is based on the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which is intended to ensure easy access to common financial transactions such as currency exchange. In the Bitcoin industry, these legal limits were generally applied to a period of one day, as long as no increased trading volume was reached.
This limit, considered to be daily, is now interpreted as a 30-day limit.
Reinterpretation by FINMA
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA has provided significant clarification regarding the existing CHF 1000 (EUR 1000) limit, which has a direct impact on Bitcoin purchases at Pocket. The limit of CHF 1000 (EUR 1000), which was previously interpreted as a daily limit, now applies to all payments within a rolling 30-day period.
Due to this new interpretation, all transactions that you carry out within a 30-day period will be added up with immediate effect. It does not matter whether you transfer smaller amounts several times or larger sums less frequently. What is important is, that the sum of all transactions (purchases and sales) under the simplified procedure (“KYC Light”) does not reach CHF 1000 (EUR 1000) during this period.
In May 2022, we already stated our critical position on this regulatory development in a detailed statement. Our stance remains unchanged: this tightening represents a disproportionate restriction and further complicates access to Bitcoin for many people.
What does this mean for you?
- As soon as you transfer CHF 1000 (EUR 1000) or more within a 30-day period, we are legally obliged to register you as a verified customer by going through an official Know-Your-Customer (KYC) process.
- For you, this means that we will ask you to verify your identity as soon as your transactions (purchases and sales) reach this limit in a rolling 30-day period.
What can you do?
To ensure that your Bitcoin purchases continues to run smoothly:
- Keep an eye on your transactions: Use our overview pages (e.g. our dashboard) to keep an eye on the total amounts of your last 30 days.
- Prepare for the KYC process: If you reach the limit of CHF 1000 (EUR 1000), we will guide you quickly and easily through the verification process.
- Plan ahead: If you plan to buy larger amounts of Bitcoin in the near future, it is worth starting the KYC process early.
Protecting your data is important to us
At Pocket, we carry out the verification process ourselves – with our own employees and our own software. Unlike many other providers, we deliberately avoid using external KYC service providers. Your personal data is processed exclusively within the Pocket infrastructure.
We understand that this change means a transition and we are here to make the process as easy as possible for you. Our goal remains to provide you with the safest and most user-friendly experience in the Bitcoin space.
Do you have any questions or need support? Our team is always at your disposal.