Companies like Chainalysis have built fast-growing businesses helping law enforcement track the mysterious money.
The New York City company employs a gaggle of doctoratewielding data scientists and statisticians who study Bitcoin’s blockchain—its indelible public ledger that records transactions—to gain clues about who owns given hoards of the digital currency.
Chainalysis isn’t the only Bitcoin detective out there. A California startup called CipherTrace infects its own computers with ransomware to observe the movement of Bitcoin paid to free the machines. The activity can provide clues about who is behind a given shakedown and, in some cases, help law enforcement recover the money.
It’s not just Bitcoin the firms are chasing. “Other currencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple are rapidly expanding,” says Tom Robinson, cofounder of London-based forensic firm Elliptic. “Whatever form value is stored in, it can be used for illicit purpose.”
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