The entities
| Entity | What it is | Key relationships |
|---|---|---|
| Party | The legal identity — an INDIVIDUAL or ORGANISATION. Carries KYC/KYB status. | Linked to one or more accounts via party roles. |
| Account | The container for money movement, pinned to one chain (BASE/AVALANCHE) at creation. | Belongs to a party (or parties); holds wallets, VBAs, transfers, and payment requests. |
| Party role | The link between a party and an account (ACCOUNT_HOLDER). | Many parties can share one account (joint accounts). |
| Wallet | Custodial crypto wallet (VENLY_MANAGED or SELF_CUSTODY). Each account has an account wallet plus an escrow wallet. | Belongs to an account; holds per-asset balances. |
| Virtual bank account | An IBAN for receiving fiat (EUR SEPA), auto-converted to crypto. | Belongs to an account. |
How they’re created
You build top-down, and verification gates the money-movement steps:Create a party
The root identity. KYC/KYB starts after creation — see Account verification.
Open an account
Link the party (
partyId, or an inline party) and choose the chain. Venly provisions the wallets.Add IBANs and move money
Assign a virtual bank account, then transfer or take payment requests.
IDs and external IDs
Every entity has a Venly UUIDid. You can also set your own externalId on parties and accounts and use it as a shortcut — for example receiverExternalId on a transfer, instead of looking up the Venly UUID.
Next steps
Getting started
Build the hierarchy end to end.
Glossary
Definitions for every entity and status.