What a provider asks for
The list varies by jurisdiction and by how risky the category looks, but the core is consistent.
- certificate of incorporation and articles of association
- an extract from the company register, usually issued within the last three months
- identity documents for directors and for anyone owning more than a set share, commonly 25 percent
- proof of the company’s registered address
- a description of the business with a working website
- at larger volumes, evidence of where the funds originate
The ownership question is the one that takes longest. A provider has to reach a natural person at the end of the chain, and a structure with holding companies in three jurisdictions turns a two-day check into a two-week one.
How KYB differs from KYC
KYC establishes who a person is. KYB establishes what a company is and who stands behind it.
They overlap: KYB includes running KYC on the directors and beneficial owners, because a company is ultimately a set of people. What KYB adds is everything corporate, from the register extract to the question of what the business actually does.
The practical distinction matters for merchants. A gateway that runs KYB on you is meeting its obligations. Whether it also demands documents from the people paying you is a separate question, and for most crypto payment gateways the answer is no.
How long it takes
At a crypto payment gateway, typically one to five working days. Card acquirers in categories they classify as high risk take considerably longer, often weeks, and frequently decline at the end of it.
Three things shorten the wait: a clean ownership structure, documents that are current rather than nearly expired, and a description of the business that matches what the website shows. The last one causes more delays than the other two combined, because a mismatch between the stated activity and the visible one puts the application into manual review by default.
Verification does not end at onboarding
Providers re-run checks periodically and when something changes: new beneficial owner, a jump in volume, a shift in what the business sells.
This is worth knowing before it happens. A merchant whose actual activity has drifted from what was declared at onboarding can find the account restricted, and the conversation at that point is harder than it would have been upfront.