[csomar]

Does regulation requires them to "understand" the business model or withhold the funds? These are two different things. For $600K, Stripe could send one of its support agents (which doesn't exist now) to verify that OP has a legitimate business. Instead, it took the much easier option of withholding these funds (from their offices in Alto) and earning interest on it... for 9 months...

I'd say good for them. If you accept that kind of shit (in business or in a relationship) you deserve it.

[yxre]

Its not really well known what is the motivation for witholding funds, but in some cases, it has been shared that is stuff around AML and people have extrapolated.

Conventional payment processors like Wells Fargo, BoA, and others do the paperwork up front, and then give you access. They don't have the spiffy features that Stripe and Paypal has.

Ultimately, I think Paypal and Stripe could have a better system, but they profit immensely this way. Like you said, good for them, but sucks for the industry because it is one of the barriers to growth is getting hit like this as you are scaling is huge.