Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals: Stages, Techniques & Compliance (SP0102)
A practical self-paced course explaining how crypto money laundering works, from placement and layering through to integration, and the techniques used to disguise the source and movement of illicit funds.
✓ Understand the three stages of crypto money laundering ✓ Recognise common obfuscation techniques, including mixers, privacy coins and chain-hopping ✓ Follow how illicit funds can move across wallets, crypto services and fiat conversion points
**This self-paced course helps compliance professionals understand how money laundering can occur through crypto-assets, how criminals obscure transaction trails, and how to respond to suspicious activity. Learners practise identifying laundering stages, recognising red flags, preserving evidence and escalating concerns through the correct compliance route.**
Course Overview
- About the Course
- Who Should Attend?
- What You'll Be Able to Do
- Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals Course Curriculum
- Meet the Trainer
- Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals Course - FAQ
- Other Upcoming Courses
- Fees & Registration Details
About the Course
About the Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals Course
This course provides a structured and practical introduction to money laundering risks in the crypto environment. While Crypto AML Awareness: Spotting Risks in the Digital Asset Era offers a 1-hour high-level primer, this course goes deeper into the “Anatomy of the Crime.”
You will examine the three stages of crypto money laundering – Placement, Layering, and Integration – and explore how criminals utilize tools such as mixers, privacy coins, and P2P exchanges to disguise transaction trails.
Key Topics Covered
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The Three Stages of Crypto Money Laundering: Detailed scenarios of placement, layering, and integration.
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Obfuscation Techniques: Understanding how mixers and privacy-enhancing technologies function.
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Red Flag Identification: Spotting suspicious patterns before they reach the integration phase. If you are ready to apply these skills to live monitoring, proceed to Spotting Red Flags: AML Detection in Crypto-Asset Transactions.
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The Regulatory Landscape: A look at how MiCA and FATF shape compliance obligations. For a deep dive into local enforcement, see Crypto Compliance Essentials: Regulators and CASP Rules for Cyprus.
Why Foundations Matter for Professional Growth
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Demystifying the Blockchain: Understand the mechanics of placement and how “dirty” assets first enter the distributed ledger.
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Identifying Risk Drivers: Learn why obfuscation tools like mixers and “chain-hopping” are the primary targets for 2026 regulators.
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Institutional Readiness: Ensure your team meets the EBA’s expectations for staff competence under the new EU AML Single Rulebook by mastering the 3 stages of laundering.
The Crypto AML Mastery Pathway
This course is the theoretical core of our 5-part learning journey. We recommend completing the modules in the following order to build an audit-ready skillset:
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SP01.1: Crypto AML Awareness — The essential first step.
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SP01.2: Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals — (You are here)
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SP01.3: Risk-Based Customer Due Diligence in Crypto — Master the onboarding gatekeeper role.
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SP01.4: Spotting Red Flags: AML Detection — Learn to monitor live transactions for suspicious patterns.
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SP01.5: Crypto Compliance Essentials: Regulators & CASP Rules — Connect your skills to Cyprus and EU law.
Who Should Attend?
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Junior Staff & New Hires: Building a foundational compliance mindset.
- Front-line Employees: Learning to identify customer risk at the point of entry. Master the onboarding process with Risk-Based Customer Due Diligence in Crypto: From Assessment to Action.
- Professionals seeking CPDs: Earn 3 CPD credits through a flexible, asynchronous format.
- Operations and customer-facing employees handling transactions
- Professionals involved in monitoring, reporting, or risk assessment
What You'll Be Able to Do
By the end of this course, participants are expected to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes relevant to AML compliance in the crypto environment.
- Explain placement, layering and integration and their role in the money laundering process
- Understand how each stage can take a different form when crypto-assets are involved
- Follow the movement of illicit value from entry into the crypto ecosystem through to eventual integration
- Explain how mixers, privacy coins, multiple wallets and peer-to-peer services may be used to obscure transaction trails
- Understand how chain-hopping and repeated asset transfers can increase complexity
- Connect common crypto laundering techniques to the different stages of the laundering process
- Follow practical examples of funds moving between wallets, crypto services and fiat currency
- Understand how multiple techniques can be combined within a laundering scheme
- Identify the points in the laundering journey where the source or ownership of funds is being deliberately obscured
Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals Course Curriculum
- Placement, layering, and integration
- Real-world laundering scenarios
- Risk indicators at each stage
- Scenario-based exercises
- Role of compliance professionals
- Mixers, tumblers and transaction trail disruption
- Privacy coins and reduced traceability
- Peer-to-peer activity and high-risk transaction routes
- Introductory overview of chain-hopping, bridges and rapid asset swaps
- Technique-specific red flags and evidence to capture
- Escalation actions for suspicious patterns
- High-level AML/CFT framework relevant to crypto-assets
- How AML controls respond to placement, layering and integration risks
- Customer due diligence, monitoring and recordkeeping basics
- Internal escalation to the MLCO or compliance team
- Reporting route to MOKAS and no tipping-off
- Practical AML compliance workflow for crypto alerts
Meet the Trainer
Fees & Registration Details
Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals Course - FAQ
This self-paced course is built around the latest criminal typologies. We focus on how digital assets are used to bypass traditional banking controls, utilizing frameworks established by the FATF Red Flag Indicators of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. By understanding these global benchmarks, you can protect your firm from emerging threats.
This course provides the “Fundamental” knowledge. For professionals in charge of regulatory licensing, audit readiness, and framework design under MiCA, we recommend our specialized practitioner course: MiCA CASP AML Compliance & Risk Assessment.
You can explore our entire catalog of professional development by visiting our Self-Paced (Asynchronous) Courses category page.
Yes. Upon successful completion of the course and all required assessments, you will receive a certificate of completion confirming your participation and learning outcomes.
This is a non-technical compliance course. It is designed for finance professionals who need to understand the risks and regulations without needing to write code or perform forensic blockchain analysis.
Crypto AML Awareness (SP0101) introduces cryptocurrency, blockchain and the key AML/CFT risks professionals should be aware of.
Crypto Money Laundering Fundamentals (SP0102) goes a step further by examining how money laundering is carried out using crypto-assets, including placement, layering, integration and common obfuscation techniques.
It is the next step for learners who already understand the basic crypto environment and want to understand how illicit funds are moved and disguised.
We constantly update our content to reflect the European Banking Authority’s expectations. For 2026, we have integrated specific guidance on the new AML/CFT Single Rulebook. You can view the underlying mandates on the EBA AML/CFT Guidelines Page.
