Venture capital firm Paradigm led the funding round, preceding Addition, Ribbit, and TIME Ventures. Chainalysis has collaborated with government agencies and banking institutions to track cryptocurrency movements.
In recent days, blockchain monitoring and tracking firm Chainalysis reached a valuation of USD 2 billion, following a round of funding. On its website, the company recently announced that it received around USD 100 million during the round.
In a press statement, Chainalysis reported that venture capital firm Paradigm led this funding round. Addition and Ribbit again invested, thus increasing their share in the company focused on the analysis of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
During this round, investment fund TIME Ventures invested in Chainalysis for the first time. The fund belongs to Marc Benioff, CEO of business relationship management software company Salesforce.
Chainalysis stated that they will use the funds to accelerate business growth, improve their services, and build more trust in blockchains.
Since cryptocurrencies are digitally native assets, Chainalysis believes that they provide the opportunity to analyze assets in entirely new ways. In that sense, they stated that they will seek to expand their products to “offer new data solutions” for tracking blockchains.
They said that the increase in their workforce has allowed them to expand the range of their services. Concerning their plans, they explained that they will hire new staff, particularly in the engineering and field offices.
At the end of last year, the firm managed to raise another USD 100 million from investors. They highlighted that the purpose of those funds was to expand their blockchain surveillance system.
Tracking the Illegal Use of Bitcoin
The firm said that it seeks to boost the industry’s regulatory infrastructure. They stated that their team works to protect the blockchain ecosystem.
Among their most recent investigations, they highlighted that less than 1% of the money moved with cryptocurrencies comes from some criminal activity. Besides, they determined that there are increasingly few service providers specializing in money laundering with cryptocurrencies.
This firm has collaborated with government agencies “that need to connect chain activity (transactions in blockchains such as those with cryptocurrencies) to other data sets.” In June, they provided their services to a bank in Brazil to track cryptocurrency transactions.
Participants in the cryptocurrency ecosystem do not view Chainalysis favorably due to such cooperation with governments. Anonymity and privacy are two of the principles that the former most defend.
This company has managed to establish a multi-million-dollar relationship with the US government. The North American country has leveraged Chainalysis after putting the tracking of money movements with Bitcoin on its radar. They also have in their sights those tools focusing on greater privacy, such as Zcash and even the Lightning network.
The governments of the world are increasingly aware of the prominence that cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, are gaining in the economic system. For that reason, some of them have created regulations on their use and have implemented new tracking systems.
By Alexander Salazar
