Global Ledger & Dfns Partner to Strengthen AML Controls

Digital asset institutions face growing pressure to prove that compliance controls are not only defined but actively enforced.

Regulators have already issued major penalties for inadequate AML controls, including Binance’s $4.3B penalty in 2023 and OKX’s $504M fine in 2025. For compliance teams, the message is clear: risk must be evaluated before funds move, not after. Otherwise, compliance failures lead to real enforcement actions.

To help institutions address this challenge, we’ve partnered with Dfns, a leading Wallet-as-a-Service infrastructure provider. This integration puts Global Ledger’s real-time AML and KYT intelligence engine directly inside Dfns’ transaction policies, so institutions can check risk before a transaction even goes through. As a result, compliance teams can identify and stop risky transactions before they happen.

So how does this integration work in practice?

Key Takeaways

Global Ledger & Dfns: what the integration means

Before this integration, institutions using wallet infrastructure such as Dfns often relied on separate AML monitoring tools or manual checks. This meant risks could be identified only after funds had already moved on-chain.

With Global Ledger integrated directly into Dfns’ transaction policies, outgoing transactions can now be screened before execution. When a transfer is initiated, the policy engine queries Global Ledger’s KYT system to evaluate the destination address (read more about how this works below).

How risk checks now happen before funds move

The integration connects Global Ledger’s advanced-tier API directly to Dfns’ transaction policies. This way, when a client initiates a transaction through Dfns:

• The policy engine queries the client’s dedicated Global Ledger environment using the client’s own API key.
• Global Ledger returns a real-time risk score for the destination address.
• The response is evaluated against a configurable risk threshold defined by the institution.

Risk score on the Global Ledger platform

If the risk score exceeds the predefined threshold, or if an alert is triggered, the policy is activated. The transaction can then be blocked, escalated, or routed for additional approvals depending on the organization’s configuration.

4 ways this integration strengthens AML compliance 

This partnership helps institutions address several critical compliance challenges:

1. Preventing high-risk transactions before they occur

Global Ledger’s KYT solution evaluates outbound transactions against continuously updated risk intelligence, including sanctions exposure, illicit activity, and ties to high-risk entities.

With a database of 700M+ attributed addresses updated daily, institutions gain full visibility into AML risk exposure before signing a transaction.

2. Delivering real-time risk checks without slowing operations 

With an average response time of approximately 500ms, Global Ledger enables high-speed, large-scale risk screening without disrupting operational workflows. Risk evaluation happens in real time within Dfns’ policy engine, ensuring compliance does not slow down payments or trading operations.

3. Eliminating fragmented compliance pipelines

By embedding Global Ledger’s KYT and AML intelligence directly into wallet policies, institutions avoid building separate monitoring pipelines or custom middleware.

Risk scoring, threshold enforcement, and policy actions operate within a unified governance framework, reducing operational complexity. 

4. Maintaining auditability and governance

Regulators require institutions to demonstrate how risk-based decisions are applied in practice. With Global Ledger’s solution integrated into Dfns’ transaction policies, every blocked or escalated transfer is tied to predefined risk thresholds and structured risk indicators, ensuring decisions remain consistent, traceable, and defensible.

About Global Ledger

Global Ledger provides the risk intelligence layer behind this integration. Our KYT solution analyzes blockchain transactions in real time, helping institutions identify AML exposure to sanctions, illicit activity, and other high-risk entities before funds move on-chain.

By bringing this intelligence directly into Dfns’ transaction policies, compliance teams can evaluate transaction risk at the moment decisions are made — not after funds have already moved. This significantly reduces the chances of risky or illicit transactions “slipping through”, as potential threats can be detected and prevented before a transfer is executed.

Schedule a demo to see how Global Ledger’s KYT solution can be integrated into your infrastructure and support your compliance workflows.

About Dfns

Dfns is a leading Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) platform for simplifying digital asset management and powering on-chain services at scale. Its programmable wallet platform brings together transaction management, workflow governance, key orchestration, and third-party integrations into a secure operating system for blockchains, enabling custody, payments, trading, tokenization, and banking.

Conclusion

As regulatory expectations continue to rise, compliance teams face increasing pressure to show that AML controls are not only defined but actively enforced. One of the most effective ways to do this is by evaluating risk at the moment a transaction is initiated before funds move on-chain.

This is where Global Ledger can make the process easier for compliance teams. Our KYT toolset gives you full transaction context, continuously updated AML risk scores recalculated in real time, and evidence-backed data to support audit readiness. Using Global Ledger’s API, you can easily integrate the KYT solution with your systems for fast, seamless data flow. Schedule a demo to see how it works in practice.