What is KYA KYA (Know Your Address) is a comprehensive mechanism for profiling and risk assessment of cryptocurrency addresses. By analyzing an address’s historical behavior, associated networks, and label information, it constructs a complete risk profile.Core Question : Is this address trustworthy?KYA helps you fully understand an address’s historical behavior and risk status before interacting with it.
KYA vs KYT KYA and KYT are complementary risk control tools that assess risk from different dimensions:
Dimension KYT KYA Analysis Target Individual transaction Overall address Time Dimension Real-time snapshot Historical accumulation Core Question Is this transaction safe? Is this address trustworthy? Update Frequency Triggered per transaction Periodic/on-demand Data Depth Transaction level Profile level
Profiling Dimensions KYA constructs address profiles from three core dimensions:
Entity Identification Identify the type of entity behind an address to understand its nature and trustworthiness.
Entity Classification Category Description Risk Weight Identification Method CEX Centralized Exchange Low Known hot wallet addresses, deposit address patterns DEX Decentralized Exchange Low-Medium Smart contract identification, router addresses Individual Regular user address Medium Behavior pattern analysis, balance characteristics Contract Smart contract Varies On-chain code verification Known Criminal Confirmed criminal address Very High Law enforcement reports, sanctions lists
Entity Identification Flow Confidence Levels Entity identification results include confidence scores to help you evaluate reliability:
Level Confidence Description Recommended Use Confirmed >95% Officially confirmed or law enforcement reported Use directly High Confidence 80-95% Strong feature matching Recommended to use Medium Confidence 50-80% Partial feature matching Use as reference Low Confidence <50% Speculation For reference only
Behavior Labels Based on on-chain behavioral characteristics, the system automatically assigns corresponding labels.
Role Labels
Behavior Labels
Entity Labels
Reflect the address’s role in the on-chain ecosystem: Label Definition Risk Implication whaleLarge holdings address (>$1M) High market influence traderHigh-frequency trading behavior Normal activity holderLong-term holding without movement Low risk botProgrammatic trading characteristics Needs attention smart_moneySmart money Professional trader
Reflect specific behavioral patterns: Label Definition Risk Implication mixer_userHas used mixing services High risk bridge_userCross-chain bridge user Medium risk defi_activeFrequent DeFi protocol interactions Normal nft_traderActive NFT trading Normal new_addressNewly created address Needs observation
Identified ownership entities: Label Description exchange:binanceBinance Exchange exchange:coinbaseCoinbase Exchange defi:uniswapUniswap Protocol bridge:multichainCross-chain Bridge sanctionsSanctioned address
Label Combination Risk Certain label combinations amplify risk signals:
High Risk Combination Example mixer_user + high_value + new_addressRisk Level : HIGHReason : New address receiving large funds from mixer matches money laundering patterns
Low Risk Combination Example whale + holder + exchange:binanceRisk Level : LOWReason : Exchange-associated long-term large holder, normal behavior
Risk Factors Core metrics for quantifying risk assessment, used to calculate comprehensive risk scores.
Core Risk Factors Factor Description Calculation Method Blacklist Exposure Degree of association with blacklisted addresses Direct/indirect exposure ratio Anomaly Index Degree of deviation from normal behavior Statistical anomaly detection Privacy Service Usage Mixer/privacy protocol usage Interaction history analysis Geographic Risk High-risk jurisdiction association IP/exchange correlation Temporal Anomaly Abnormal time patterns Transaction time analysis
Use Cases 1. Counterparty Due Diligence
Collect Counterparty Address
Collect wallet address from OTC trading counterparty
Register Address
POST https://api.chainstream.io/v1/kyt/address Authorization: Bearer < access_toke n > Content-Type: application/json { "address" : "0x1234567890abcdef1234567890abcdef12345678" }
Get Risk Assessment
GET https://api.chainstream.io/v1/kyt/addresses/{address}/risk Authorization: Bearer < access_toke n >
Make Decision
Severe/High → Reject transactionMedium → Request additional KYCLow → Proceed normally 2. Batch Address Screening Periodically screen existing user addresses:
async function batchScreenAddresses ( addresses ) { const results = []; for ( const address of addresses ) { // 1. Register address await fetch ( 'https://api.chainstream.io/v1/kyt/address' , { method: 'POST' , headers: { 'Authorization' : `Bearer ${ accessToken } ` , 'Content-Type' : 'application/json' }, body: JSON . stringify ({ address }) }); // 2. Get risk assessment const riskResponse = await fetch ( `https://api.chainstream.io/v1/kyt/addresses/ ${ address } /risk` , { headers: { 'Authorization' : `Bearer ${ accessToken } ` } } ); const risk = await riskResponse . json (); results . push ({ address , risk: risk . risk , addressType: risk . addressType }); } return results ; }
Business Flow :
Export user address list
Batch register and query risk
Filter high-risk addresses
Trigger follow-up processing
3. Real-time Risk Alerts Provide risk alerts before wallet users transfer:
Data Elements Field Required Description address ✅ Address to query
Output Data { "address" : "0x0038AC785dfB6C82b2c9A7B3B6854e08a10cb9f1" , "risk" : "Low" , "riskReason" : null , "addressType" : "PRIVATE_WALLET" , "cluster" : null , "addressIdentifications" : [], "exposures" : [ { "category" : "sanctions" , "value" : 0.0 } ], "triggers" : [], "status" : "COMPLETE" }
Response Field Description Field Type Description address string Queried address risk string Risk level: Severe, High, Medium, Low riskReason string Risk reason (can be null) addressType string Address type: PRIVATE_WALLET, EXCHANGE, CONTRACT, etc. cluster string Associated cluster name (can be null) addressIdentifications array Address identification labels exposures array Risk exposure list triggers array Triggered risk rules status string Analysis status: COMPLETE, PENDING
Synergy with KYT KYA and KYT should be used together in practice to achieve comprehensive risk management.
Synergy Pattern Decision Matrix KYT Result KYA Result Combined Decision SEVERE Any Immediate freeze HIGH HIGH/SEVERE Freeze pending review HIGH LOW/MEDIUM Manual review MEDIUM HIGH/SEVERE Manual review MEDIUM MEDIUM Enhanced monitoring LOW LOW Auto-approve LOW HIGH Flag for monitoring
Best Practices 1. Caching Strategy KYA results can be cached moderately:
Risk Level Recommended Cache Duration Reason SEVERE No caching May have updates HIGH 1 hour Needs fresh data MEDIUM 6 hours Balance performance LOW 24 hours Low risk is stable
2. Incremental Update For monitoring existing addresses:
Recommended Approach
Initial full query to establish baseline
Daily incremental update for HIGH and above addresses
Weekly incremental update for MEDIUM addresses
Monthly full refresh
3. Threshold Tuning Adjust thresholds based on business scenarios:
Scenario Recommended Adjustment High-value clients Raise MEDIUM threshold New users Strictly use default thresholds Batch screening Slightly relax to avoid excessive false positives
Next Steps
Compliance Integration Guide Start integrating KYA
KYT Core Concepts Learn about transaction-level risk control
API Authentication Understand authentication methods
KYA API Reference View API documentation
