# Changelly

Category: exchanges · Instant Swaps
Grade: C-
KYC: anonymous_signup
Highlights: INSTANT-SWAP, SHOTGUN-KYC-RISK, NO-ACCOUNT, XMR, MULTICHAIN, EST-2015
Features: custodial, closed_source, multi_chain, country_blocks
Web: https://changelly.com
Last verified: 2026-08-21

> Custodial instant swap since 2015 — 300+ assets including XMR, no account for crypto-to-crypto swaps. Reader caveat: its AML policy lets it put flagged transactions on hold and demand ID after your deposit lands (shotgun-KYC).

## Review

**What it is.** Changelly is a custodial instant-swap service operating since 2015 — one of the oldest names in the category. 300+ assets across many chains, Monero included; you can swap crypto-to-crypto without an account or email (pick the pair, choose a floating or fixed rate, give a receive address, and send to a one-time deposit address). Fiat purchases are routed through licensed third-party providers who KYC you themselves.

**The rate.** Changelly earns from the spread baked into the quoted rate rather than a visible line-item fee. The number you see is what you get, but the margin is not itemized against the mid-market rate — cross-check a quote elsewhere for a large swap.

**The risk that defines the grade — AML holds.** Changelly runs a full AML/KYC program, and its own policy is explicit: when its risk engine flags a transaction as suspicious, *"the transaction will be put on hold"* and the service collects identity documents before releasing funds. This is the shotgun-KYC pattern — marketed as no-signup, but the operator reserves the right to demand ID, usually **after your deposit has already landed**, when the internal risk score trips. It also screens against sanctions / SDN lists and geoblocks restricted regions. Changelly is one of the most-reported services in the category for exactly this: funds held pending verification, sometimes for extended periods.

**What this means for you.** Most swaps clear untouched. But the risk engine fires unpredictably — large amounts, certain chains, certain addresses or IPs — and when it fires, your funds are already custodial and can be frozen until you verify or the case resolves. That is categorically different from a structurally non-custodial atomic swap, where no engine can pause a trade because no operator holds the funds. Read the current refund / hold terms before depositing, and never route funds you cannot afford to have held.

**Useful when.** You want deep liquidity and broad asset coverage from a long-established operator, your funds are clean and unremarkable, and you accept the custodial-hold risk as the price of convenience. For anything privacy-sensitive or time-critical, a non-custodial atomic swap or a P2P venue is the safer shape.

**Caveats & grade.** **C-**: eleven years of tenure and published Terms / Privacy / AML policies are real positives that keep it a legitimate listing — but the custodial hold-pending-KYC behaviour is a documented, recurring, above-average reader hazard, which pulls it below the C midpoint. It is listed because it works and it is honest about being AML-bound; it is graded low because it works right up until the risk engine decides it does not. Clean funds are usually fine; a complicated history is not.

Source: https://xmr.club/exchanges/changelly