Chainalysis is an American
blockchain analysis firm headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. The company was co-founded by Michael Gronager, Jan Møller and Jonathan Levin in 2014,
and is the first start-up company dedicated to the business of
Bitcoin
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...
tracing. It offers compliance and investigation software to analyze the blockchain public
ledger
A ledger is a book or collection of accounts in which accounting transactions are recorded. Each account has:
* an opening or brought-forward balance;
*a list of transactions, each recorded as either a debit or credit in separate columns (usu ...
, which is primarily used to track virtual currencies.
Along with banks and brokers its customers have included the United States
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
,
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit Illegal drug trade, drug trafficking a ...
, and the
Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, as well as the United Kingdom's
National Crime Agency
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a Law enforcement agency#natlea, national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; Human trafficking, human, Arms trafficking, weapon and Illegal drug t ...
.
History
Chainalysis was formed to be the official investigator of the hack of
cryptocurrency exchange
A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...
Mt. Gox when Gronager was the
COO of
Kraken, which was then employed by the bankruptcy trustee for Mt. Gox to investigate the hack. The company was co-founded by Michael Gronager, Jan Møller and Jonathan Levin in 2014.
The company developed proprietary financial crime investigation software which monitors cryptocurrency's public ledger, forming the first full view of transactions on the
blockchain
The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...
.
In March 2021, it partnered with crypto compliance company Notabene to comply with the
FATF's Travel Rule across jurisdictions. American business publication Fast Company referred to this partnership one of the top 10 most innovative joint ventures of 2022.
In May 2024, Chainalysis moved its regional headquarters for the Southern Europe, Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa regions to Dubai.
Noted investigations
Chainalysis has helped law enforcement recover cryptocurrencies from illegal enterprises, including, in 2020, assisting law enforcement to recover over $1 billion from the take-down of the dark web marketplace
Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
.
[
In October 2019, the company helped the ]United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
shut down the world's then-largest child abuse website.
It also aided in the attribution of seven 2021 cryptocurrency thefts to the North Korean Lazarus Group.
Working with American investigators and the South Korean National Intelligence Service, the company tracked $100 million stolen from a California cryptocurrency firm Harmony to North Korean hackers, who have stolen billions of dollars from banks and cryptocurrency firms, funding its illegal missile program. $1 million of the stolen funds were recovered in April 2023.
See also
* Bitcoin network#Criminal activity
* Cryptocurrency and crime
Cryptocurrency and crime describe notable examples of cybercrime related to theft (or the otherwise illegal acquisition) of cryptocurrencies and some methods or security vulnerabilities commonly exploited. Cryptojacking is a form of cybercrime sp ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
*{{Official website
Blockchain entities
Bitcoin companies
American companies established in 2014
2014 establishments in New York City