The SDN List — Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons — is OFAC's list of people, entities and vessels whose property and interests in property US persons must block. Because digital currency addresses can appear as identifiers on a designation, a crypto address can be listed in the same way an account number or a passport number can. A match is not a risk signal to weigh against commercial factors; it is a legal obligation to act on.
OFAC defines digital currency, digital currency addresses and wallets for sanctions purposes (OFAC FAQ 559), and its virtual currency guidance explains how those addresses appear against designated persons (OFAC virtual currency FAQs). The list itself is public: searchable through OFAC's own lookup (Sanctions List Search) and downloadable in full (SDN List).
The exposure does not depend on knowing. A transfer to a designated address is a problem whether or not anyone at your desk recognised the string, which is why screening runs before the transfer rather than after the incident.
It is also worth being precise about what "SDN" covers. The list is one of several OFAC maintains, it names people, companies and vessels as well as addresses, and an address on it is an identifier attached to a designated party rather than a separate kind of listing. Property of that party is blocked wherever a US person can reach it, which includes a great deal of infrastructure that is not obviously American.
Sanctions is named as the driver, the designated entity is named where the designation names one, and the recommendation is Reject. The result carries the network and the date, which is the part your file needs later — a check is only evidence if it can be shown to have happened before the transfer.
The workspace keeps that as a case with an owner, an audit trail and a signed report you can forward to a bank or a regulator. For a single address, the Telegram bot returns the same verdict in seconds, free, three checks a day.
Yes. Digital currency addresses appear as identifiers on designations alongside names and other identifying data ([OFAC FAQ 559](https://ofac.treasury.gov/faqs/559)).
OFAC's Sanctions List Search is public ([Sanctions List Search](https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/)) and the full list is downloadable. It tells you whether a string is listed; it does not tell you whether the address you were handed has been receiving funds from a designated wallet, which is what address screening is for.
No. The EU consolidated list and the UK Sanctions List apply to firms touching those jurisdictions, and other regimes may apply to your markets. Screen every list with authority over your business or your banking.
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Stop, preserve the record, escalate internally and take advice. Do not forward the funds and do not send them back — both are movements of blocked property.
Send any wallet to the Telegram bot and get a verdict in seconds. Three checks a day, free, no signup. Desks that screen every deposit run it on plans from $199/mo.