El Capo

> INCIDENT (2026-09-08) - grade dropped A -> F. El Capo failed to deliver a ~$45,400 Monero order (ref KR-71B69B10): their partner API issued the BTC deposit address, their own key swept the deposit on-chain (sweep tx `629df2a3...`), and they then denied the order ever existed and stalled support. We route this non-custodially and never held the funds. Do not send funds to El Capo. They were an A-grade listing and a paying headline sponsor - that slot is pulled and the grade is F; grades are not for sale. We also earned affiliate rev-share routing to El Capo - we are ending that too and forfeiting the income. Full account below.

What it is. Monero-first instant swap service. Currently observed pairs include BTC → XMR and XMR → USDT (fixed or float rate). The site is explicitly built around Monero (*"XMR — the cartel's coin of choice"*), with Tor-native styling and a published onion mirror at `elcapo4l4xad5iipvv6ewg46x6jgb26ed43e5jbrlajxatjoxybue4id.onion` (verify from Tor Browser before quoting).

Data collection. Advertised as *Ghost Mode*: no ID, no name, no email. Order records are advertised as deleted after 30 days, or *"sooner on request."* No account is required for a swap; deposit-to-receive is the entire flow. Operator publishes an explicit Level 0 KYC posture — no ID, docs, selfies, or source-of-funds requested at any order size.

AML posture — Level 0 with risk-based pricing. Operator publishes an explicit no-gatekeeping AML policy: swaps are never blocked, frozen, or de-anonymized on AML grounds. A free AML risk check is available on request, and the resulting risk score is used only for risk-based pricing — it may adjust the fee and the final amount received, but never to deny, delay, or identify the customer. That posture is unusually direct for the instant-swap category, where "AML gatekeeping" is the standard shape of KYC-triggering behaviour mid-swap.

Per-order letter of guarantee (added 2026-08). As of August 2026, El Capo issues a signed letter of guarantee for each order — an operator-supplied protection artifact tied to a specific swap. The letter accompanies the order flow (announced to the directory directly by the operator; format not independently verified in a separate follow-up test yet). Practical value: adds a written commitment tied to the specific transaction, which strengthens the reader's recourse position vs a swap-only handshake — useful especially for larger orders where a paper trail of what was promised has material weight.

Liquidity & pricing. El Capo operates on its own liquidity book (not an aggregator or order-router-through-others), with a 0.75% margin baked into the displayed rates — the operator publishes both facts openly, which is unusually direct for the category. Margin is absorbed into the quoted rate rather than surfaced pre-swap on the widget; factor it in when comparing quotes across services.

Peer position. Two independent peer-directory anchors: kycnot.me at 9/10 (`/service/el-capo`) and monerica.com (`/site/el-capo`). Reciprocally, El Capo's own post-swap success page embeds xmr.club's *Rate-Us* badge alongside the KYCnot.me and Monerica prompts — actively routing satisfied customers to all three directories most likely to move readers on a grade. That's material trust-signal reciprocity, not just listing tolerance.

Test swap (2026-07-05). Small-order end-to-end swap completed clean:

• 0.32 XMR → 101.59882 USDT-ETH
• Rate 316.576763 USDT/XMR (FLOAT) — variance ~0.04% vs quote
• Effective completion ~4 min from broadcast to credit
• Minimum order size: $100; rate lock: 20 min from order creation

Confirmation policy. Operator publishes an up-to-10 confirmations ceiling for XMR — a documented maximum, not a floor. Observed behaviour at the ~$100 tier: 1 confirmation was effective (the "10 confs" widget text is informational at that size). Larger amounts likely tighten toward the ceiling; the operator has not published a per-tier threshold, so if you're moving a five-figure amount, budget for the full 10-conf wait or ask support to confirm the per-order requirement. Edge case: a first attempt at Slow/Default priority sat in mempool and expired around the 20-min mark; resend at Fast priority cleared in a single confirmation. Reader tip: don't skimp on the fee when the rate is locked.

Why Grade A. Seven converging signals: (a) kycnot 9/10 peer score, (b) monerica corroboration, (c) working onion mirror advertised on the clearnet homepage, (d) explicit no-data-collection framing that survived an end-to-end test, (e) transparent fee/rate handling — 0.75% margin operator-published + quoted rate held within 0.04% of settled rate on FLOAT, (f) operator-side reciprocal directory linkage (Rate-Us badge embed on the success page), (g) explicit Level 0 AML posture — never blocks, freezes, or de-anonymizes on AML grounds; risk-score used only for risk-based pricing, never for gatekeeping.

Tenure caveat. Publicly verified on xmr.club since 2026-07-03. Grade A is granted on the strength of structural + verified operational signals rather than 90-day tenure. A 90-day re-check remains scheduled (2026-10-01); a serious incident before then drops the grade to C or lower without appeal.

Caveats. Branded copy leans on cartel imagery (*"cartel's coin of choice"*) — stylistic choice, not a functional concern, but worth noting for readers who care about how a service self-positions. Fee is not surfaced pre-swap on the widget; it's absorbed into the quoted rate. Larger-amount confirmation behaviour is bounded by the operator's up-to-10 published ceiling — budget accordingly for large orders and confirm the per-order requirement with support ahead of time.