Overview

Understand when and how to use the Identity API to onboard persons and institutions to Paxos-powered financial services.

When Identity is Required

If your integration uses Paxos’s licenses to provide financial services to end users, those users must be onboarded via the Identity API. This applies regardless of which product you are building on — crypto brokerage, money movement, custody, or payments.

The Identity API is how you satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for the users you serve. Submitting user information through the Identity API initiates the compliance review that determines whether your users can access your integration.

If you are unsure whether your integration requires Identity, contact Support.

What is an Identity?

An Identity is the KYC record for a person or institution on the Paxos Platform. It carries the result of the compliance review and determines what actions the user can take across your integration.

Two identity types are supported:

Type	Use when
Person	The end user is an individual
Institution	The end user is a company, trust, or other legal entity

Institution identities require associated person identities for key roles — such as beneficial owners and control persons. See Institution Types and Members.

How It Works

You are responsible for collecting user information and managing the onboarding experience. The compliance review happens asynchronously on the Paxos side — your end users are never contacted directly.

➊ Collect — Gather the user’s required details and complete identity verification (IDV) with your IDV provider. What you need depends on identity type. See Required Details and Identity Verification.

➋ Submit — Call Create Identity. The identity enters PENDING status immediately.

➌ Wait — The submission is reviewed asynchronously. The identity transitions to APPROVED or DENIED.

➍ Respond — An APPROVED identity can transact. A DENIED identity cannot access Paxos-powered services.

Set up a webhook integration to receive identity.approved and identity.denied events in real time rather than polling.

Object Model

For most integrations, an Identity is one of three related objects:

Identity      ← who the user is (KYC record, compliance status)
  └─ Account  ← their relationship to a product (e.g. a brokerage account)
       └─ Profile ← their asset holdings (fiat and crypto balances)

An Identity represents who. An Account represents what they are using. A Profile represents what they hold.

One Identity can have multiple Accounts — for example, a user can hold both a joint and an individual brokerage account under the same identity.

Account and Profile are specific to crypto brokerage. For money movement and other products, the Identity itself is typically sufficient. Refer to the relevant product guide for details.

Identity Verification

Before a person identity can be approved, the individual’s government-issued identity must be verified. You are responsible for running this verification with an IDV provider of your choice (e.g., Jumio, Persona) before creating the identity.

When creating a person identity, set verifier_type to PASSTHROUGH and include details about when and how IDV was performed — the provider used, the verification ID, and the fields verified.

IDV applies to person identities only. Paxos currently does not have a managed IDV solution.

Get Started

Onboard a Person

Create a person identity and handle the onboarding decision

Onboard an Institution

Create an institution identity with required members

Identity Lifecycle

Understand identity statuses, requirements, and controls

Required Details

See what information to collect for each identity type