Identity verification
Why verification opens up the exchange, what documentation and identity checks involve, every status you can see, and what each one unlocks or blocks.
Verifying your profile — what the industry calls KYC ("know your customer") — is the step that opens up Criptala for you. Until your active profile is Verified, buying, selling, and investing stay locked. The good news: you can always view your orders home and switch between your profiles, even while a verification is pending.
Verification is per profile
Each profile — personal or business — is verified on its own. Verifying one profile does not verify your others, and each can sit at a different status at the same time. Head to Profiles to create, switch, and manage them.
Two kinds of requirement
Criptala keeps track of what it still needs from you as a list of requirements on your profile. Each one comes in one of two types:
Data
A form field or a document you fill in or upload yourself — text, a number, a date, a choice, or a file.
Integration
An automated check run through an external provider's API — for identity checks, that provider is Metamap.
Each requirement also has its own status:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Not yet submitted or completed. |
| Completed | Submitted (Data) or confirmed by the provider (Integration) and accepted. |
Some requirements are also flagged internally for manual review. If any requirement you submit needs a look from our team, your profile moves to Review needed as soon as you send it — see the status table below.
Which requirements you're asked for, and when, depends on your country, profile type, and operating volume (your verification tier). See Fees & limits for how tiers work.
Completing documentation requirements
When you have a pending Data requirement, we take you to a form headed We need some information, subtitled "Please fill in the following information to continue." While it loads, you'll briefly see "Thinking..."
Every field on this form is marked as required. The kind of input you get for each field depends on how that requirement was set up:
| Field type | What you see |
|---|---|
| Checkbox | A checkbox to tick. |
| Date | A date picker. |
| Enumerated | A dropdown of predefined choices (for example, your Occupation or Marital status). |
| File | A file picker to upload a document. |
| Number | A numeric input. |
| Text | A single-line text input. |
| Options select | A dropdown built from a custom list of choices. |
| Textarea | A free-text input (rendered as a plain text field). |
Each field may also show a short helper note underneath it, and a validation error message right below it if you submit something that doesn't fit.
Fill in every requested field. Requirements often ask for identity documents — you may be asked to upload your Identity document, Passport, or Tax identification, depending on what's needed for your country and profile type.
Select Continue to submit. The button turns itself off while your submission is on its way, so you can't send it twice.
Watch for the confirmation. You'll see a "Your information has been saved" notice — "We will review it shortly and get back to you as soon as possible." From there we return you to your orders home (or, right after setting up a new business profile, to your financial accounts screen — see Accounts & beneficiaries).
Some answers are also saved straight onto your profile — for example, a Marital status answer may live on your profile record itself, not just as an answered requirement. So you may spot that same information elsewhere in your profile afterward.
The form's top-right Close button lets you step away without finishing — we send you back to your orders home, which stays reachable while documentation is pending. You can also Logout from this screen.
Closing doesn't cancel the requirement
Closing the form only puts it off for now. Anywhere else in the app you go, you'll land straight back on this same form until every pending Data requirement is submitted — except your orders home, which always stays open.
Coming back to it later
Whenever you have pending documentation, an amber Documentation pending banner — "We need some additional documentation" — follows you across the app. Its Complete documentation button reopens the form whenever you're ready.
Identity verification with Metamap
Some requirements are automated Integration checks. Today, identity verification runs through Metamap, our identity-verification partner.
You'll see the prompt Identity verification required — "Complete your identity verification with Metamap to continue using all features." — in two places:
- The same banner used for documentation shows a Verify profile button once no documentation is pending but a Metamap check still is.
- If you try to do something that needs verification, a pop-up shows up with Verify (with an arrow icon) and a plain Understood button to close it without starting the check.
Select Verify (or Verify profile). Metamap's own verification widget opens on top of the page — Criptala doesn't handle any of your documents itself in this step.
Complete Metamap's steps inside its widget. This usually means scanning an identity document and taking a selfie. As part of its check, Metamap can capture your full name, date of birth, document country and number, address, and phone number.
Finish or exit the widget. Either way, the page reloads on its own a couple of seconds later to pick up your latest status.
The result isn't always instant
Metamap checks the inputs first (your profile briefly shows as Verifying), then reviews and confirms the result. If Metamap's own review flags anything, or if another profile already exists with the same document number, your profile goes to Review needed so a person can take a look instead of it being verified automatically.
Already verified, but still asked for Metamap?
If your profile is already Verified overall but still has a separate pending Metamap requirement, you're actually still blocked: checkout, financial accounts, wallets, and every other screen outside your orders home quietly send you back to your orders home until you finish it. Unlike the usual Profile not verified pop-up, no message explains why — that alert only shows up while your profile isn't Verified. The banner does keep showing Identity verification required with its Verify profile button, so you always have a clear way to sort it out.
Other, non-identity integration checks may run behind the scenes; those don't show any verification button — they sort themselves out automatically and need nothing from you.
Your profile status
Your profile's overall verification status is what decides what you can and can't do.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Your profile is awaiting verification. Nothing has been confirmed yet. |
| Documentation pending | We need additional documents or form fields from you (see above). |
| Verifying | Your identity check is in progress — for example, just submitted to Metamap. |
| Review needed | Your submission needs a manual review before it can be confirmed. |
| Verified | Fully verified. You can buy, sell, and invest. |
| Rejected | Your verification was declined. |
| Disabled | The profile has been disabled. |
Each status also comes with its own message you'll see around the app: "Your profile is pending of verification" (Pending), "We need some additional documentation" (Documentation pending), "Your profile is being verified" (Verifying), "Your profile is being reviewed" (Review needed), "Your profile has been rejected" (Rejected), and "Your profile is disabled" (Disabled).
And once your profile becomes Verified, you'll get the good news too: "Your profile has been verified! You can now access all features."
Blocked states — what you'll see
Only Verified profiles can transact
Buying, selling, and investing are available only to Verified profiles.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| You have a pending Data requirement | You're redirected to the We need some information form from almost anywhere in the app. Your orders home stays open, and switching profiles always stays available. |
| You have a pending Integration requirement (e.g. Metamap) and you're not Verified yet | You're sent to your orders home with a pop-up: Profile not verified — "You need to verify your profile to access this resource." The banner's Verify profile button is shown if the pending check is Metamap-based. |
| You have a pending Integration requirement but your profile is already Verified | You're silently redirected back to your orders home from checkout, financial accounts, wallets, and every other screen — with no pop-up explaining why. The banner still shows Identity verification required with its Verify profile button so you have a clear way to resolve it. |
| You try to use a feature that specifically requires verification, and your profile isn't Verified | Same pop-up: Profile not verified — "You need to verify your profile to access this resource." — and you're returned to your orders home. |
| You switch to a different profile | Always allowed, no matter what's pending on the profile you're leaving. |
Documents you may be asked to upload
When a Data requirement asks for a file, it's usually one of these document types:
| Document type |
|---|
| Identity document |
| Passport |
| Tax identification |
Higher limits may need more verification
Criptala uses verification tiers tied to your operating volume in USD (see Fees & limits). While you're putting an order together, if completing it would push your yearly traded volume past your current tier, the checkout summary gives you a heads-up right above the action buttons:
"When you complete this operation, we will request additional documentation to continue verifying your profile."
This is only a heads-up — it does not block that order; Create stays enabled. Any new documentation or identity-verification requirements simply turn up afterward, the next time you use the app.