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1 in 5 Cross-Chain Crypto Investigations Involve More Than 10 Blockchains, Elliptic Finds
Hopping from chain to chain is a common obfuscation tactic for criminals trying to cover their tracks, Elliptic CTO Jackson Hull said.
Updated Apr 11, 2025, 3:27 p.m. Published Apr 11, 2025, 2:21 p.m.
What to know:
- Crypto criminals are increasingly using multiple blockchain ecosystems to evade detection, with 20% of investigations spanning over 10 blockchains.
- Elliptic's data shows that a third of complex cross-chain investigations involve four or more blockchains, highlighting the growing trend.
- Elliptic has expanded its coverage to support 50 blockchains, aiding in tracing funds across ecosystems and assisting in law enforcement actions like the takedown of the Russian crypto exchange Garantex.
Crypto criminals are taking increasing pains to evade detection, moving assets between a multitude of blockchain ecosystems in an effort to throw investigators off their trail. A full 20% of complex cross-chain investigations now span more than 10 different blockchains, according to new data from blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.
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Elliptic found that a third of complex cross-chain investigations involved four or more blockchains, and 27% involved more than five.
Jackson Hull, Elliptic’s chief technology officer, told CoinDesk that though cross-chain crime has existed as long as there have been multiple blockchains, the volume of cross-chain crime has increased “pretty dramatically” over the last five years as the cost of switching ecosystems has gone down and the number of options to switch to has gone up.
Though there are plenty of non-criminal reasons why someone would want to move assets between crypto ecosystems, Hull said that it’s also a very common obfuscation tactic for hackers and other criminals who want to launder money and cover their tracks.
Hull said that Elliptic has recently expanded its coverage to support 50 blockchains, meaning that investigators who use Elliptic’s software are able to easily trace funds that move between any of the covered blockchains, or pass through any of the “300-plus” bridges Elliptic’s software supports. Hull added that Elliptic is able to add a new blockchain to its coverage in as little as three weeks.
“The most important, risky, high-stakes investigations are the ones where the [bad] actor is trying to launder or hide or obfuscate the funds so they pop more and more across these blockchains,” Hull said. “So that's really what drives it.”
Elliptic aided U.S. law enforcement in their recent takedown of sanctioned Russian crypto exchange Garantex, which was popular with ransomware gangs and Russian oligarchs looking to evade sanctions. Following the takedown, the exchange has attempted to rebrand as Grinex.
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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CFTC Launches Digital Assets Pilot Allowing Bitcoin, Ether and USDC as Collateral
Acting Chair Caroline Pham has unveiled a first-of-its-kind U.S. program to permit tokenized collateral in derivatives markets, citing "clear guardrails" for firms.
What to know:
- The CFTC has launched a pilot program allowing BTC, ETH and USDC to be used as collateral in U.S. derivatives markets.
- The program is aimed at approved futures commission merchants and includes strict custody, reporting and oversight requirements.
- The agency also issued updated guidance for tokenized assets and withdrew outdated restrictions following the GENIUS Act.
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