The SEC and FBI’s Investment in Blockchain Analysis Services Is A Watch Out For Money Launderer

By Kapil Gauhar

As indicated in the data compiled by Diar, the most prominent newsletter of Cryptosphere, American governmental bodies have spent over $5.7 million of taxpayer money for purchasing the services offered by blockchain analysis companies which have raised a substantial $28.8 million since Bitcoin’s inception.

Blockchain analysis organisations, for example, CipherTrace, Elliptic and Chainalysis, use systems and techniques reminiscent of those used by traditional financial institutions for identifying criminal activity and attempting to link identities to anonymous bitcoin addresses. The analysis process details used are usually kept behind closed doors, but these startups trace transactions back to a registered exchange to garner personal information about the suspect.

As many people would consider, the government-backed agencies such as CFTC, SEC, FBI and IRS have issued over 50 contracts for tracking down Bitcoin-related suspects over the years.

Astonishingly, the monetary amount which the government agencies have spent on such services has tripled in the past six months. It may imply that although crypto prices have seen a sharp downfall in 2018, governmental employees from the US are still dead set on tracking down presumed criminals who have used the digital currency in some form.

The author of Diar’s recent report stated, “The pseudo-anonymity of cryptocurrencies provides intelligence agencies with a paper trail, which can very often be decrypted by blockchain analysis companies. That information can be used as actionable intelligence with the possibility of leading to criminal prosecution. And the rapid rise in cumulative spending of intelligence agencies indicates that they are paying very close attention.”

Seeing the value that these administrations give to governments around the world, don’t expect the utilisation of these analysis tools, which specifically infringe on the security of crypto users, to wind down at any point shortly, henceforth why Satis Group called for XMR recently to be valued at over $18,000 a piece sooner or later within the following five years.