CipherTrace Says It Can Instantly Flag Shady Transactions With Predictive Risk Scores

CipherTrace, a blockchain analytics software firm, has deployed a predictive risk-scoring system the company says provides real-time alerts on suspect crypto transactions for its exchange, investor and investigator clients.

• The tool will assign risk based on the on-chain histories of transacted funds, the Silicon Valley firm said.
• Inbound cryptos with unseemly ties (from sanctioned countries or a fraud campaign, for example) would get a “high risk" score under the system.
• CipherTrace claims the score respects user privacy, saying in a press release that it does not process any personally identifiable information.
• Coming days after a Twitter hacker scammed nearly $200,000 in bitcoin from hundreds of victims, the score could warn exchanges of incoming plunder, CipherTrace chief financial analyst John Jefferies told CoinDesk.
• All CipherTrace clients can use the tool from Tuesday's launch at 13:00 UTC (9 a.m. ET).
• Jefferies declined to state how large that customer base is, saying only that Binance is among them. CipherTrace firm has previously boasted 150 partners.
• The blockchain intelligence sector is broadly deploying risk-based scoring against a problematic crypto trio: money launderers, sanctions violators and terrorist financiers.
• CipherTrace competitors Chainalysis and Elliptic market similar tools.