Cryptocurrencies are getting more worldwide adoption, and every day, we see new beginners getting into the crypto space. In addition, companies are also starting to offer their products and services with the acceptance of crypto payments.
On the other side, cybercriminals always resort to crypto scams and crypto thefts. Regulatory agencies are now being made to monitor crypto activities in their country. Bank institutions have to find tools to uncover blockchain intelligence for their customers. Law enforcement agencies need tools to uncover the identities of those hiding behind the wallet address.
Having a reliable and competent blockchain forensics tool is critical for investigation, regulatory purposes, compliance, and monitoring purposes.
Related article
What are the BEST Blockchain Forensics, Analysis & Investigation Tools?
Here are the top three (3) most reliable and proven cryptocurrency forensics & analysis tools.
1. Chainalysis
A pioneer in blockchain forensics, Chainalysis is well-known for two (2) reasons. Firstly, it was used by law enforcement during the investigation into the Mt. Gox case in 2014. Mx Gox was an early-day cryptocurrency exchange, and it was being hacked over 650,000 Bitcoin at that time. The following year, the tool was also used again in the Silk Road dark web market investigation. Secondly, it is now well adopted by law enforcement agencies worldwide.
Chainalysis has evolved into a few products over the years, and these are the few notable products you may find helpful.
Chainalysis Reactor
This tool is the investigative arm of all their products. Suitable for law enforcement and private investigators, the Reactor tool connects Bitcoin transactions to real-world entities, linking them to a particular crypto exchange or a particular type of wallet. All you need is to provide the bitcoin wallet address of your interest and see all the past transactions from various wallets coming in and going out in a graphical user interface.
You can add any Bitcoin wallet address to a “watchlist” for long-term monitoring purposes and receive alerts whenever there are movements. This is useful for crypto scams, hack, and theft cases. You can also search social media sites and dark web information against the wallet address of your interest to see if someone of interest had posted the same wallet address.
Chainalysis KYT
KYT stands for Know Your Transaction. It is suitable for banking institutions and regulatory agencies that require blockchain intelligence for their company or agency’s compliance, investigation and investment needs. Chainalysis data is also fully auditable, relying on ground-truth evidence that stands up in a court of law.
By combining over 6,500+ unique services that contain hundreds of millions of wallet addresses, KYT can monitor over $6 trillion of value transferred in real time.
Use KYT to detect patterns of high-risk activities and prevent transactions with addresses identified on OFAC’s sanction list, freeze deposits from hacks or ransomware, screen ETH accounts, and more. You can also configure real-time alerts based on your organisation’s AML policies.
2. Elliptic
Elliptic is more than a cryptocurrency investigation and market intelligence tool. It offers blockchain analytics training and certifications that enable law enforcement and private sector personnel to be more technically competent when dealing with crypto transactions.
Some of the notable products are;
Crypto Investigations
Suitable for investigators, this tool provides clear visualization graphs when investigating user activities. For example, you can visualize transactional relationships and follow the money trail to find its ultimate source or destination. Another feature is the ability to monitor crypto wallets. You input the wallet address, and the tool will assist you in keeping track of the addresses and transactions associated with specific entities, ranging from crypto exchanges to darknet markets.
Crypto Wallet Screening
This tool allows you to screen crypto wallets in real time and protect your business from potential financial crime. Doing so can uncover links to money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctioned entities. Some features include blocking risky transactions, performing due diligence on customer crypto wallets when onboarding, combating fraud by detecting account takeovers and blocking transactions to wallets linked to criminal activity.
3. CipherTrace
CipherTrace offers a one (1) day Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Essentials Certification (BCEC) course that caters to executives new to crypto and blockchain. On top of this, the company also offers two (2) other training courses, namely Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner (CTCE) and Certified Cryptocurrency Risk Specialist (CCRS).
Some of their notable products are;
Inspector
This specific financial investigation tool supports the analysis of over 800 coins. Inspector aims to help law enforcement to investigate players in the crypto economy. In addition, non-technical agents and analysts can use Inspector’s de-anonymization tools to identify and track criminals. This de-anonymization capability spans more than 87% of global virtual assets.
Sentry KYT
KYT means Know Your Transaction, a tool for banking institutions and regulatory agencies. Sentry complies with AMLD5, FATF, and Jurisdictional Regulations. In addition, it monitors crypto exchanges, initial coin offerings (ICO), crypto hedge funds and many more.
