New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
. The company was co-founded by Michael Gronager and Jonathan Levin in 2014. Its customers have included the United States's
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
National Crime Agency
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...
.
History
Chainalysis was formed to be the official investigator of the hack of cryptocurrency exchangeMt. Gox when Michael Gronager was the Chief Operating Officer of
Kraken
The kraken () is a legendary sea monster of enormous size said to appear off the coasts of Norway.
Kraken, the subject of sailors' superstitions and mythos, was first described in the modern age at the turn of the 18th century, in a travel ...
. His company was employed by the bankruptcy trustee of Mt. Gox to investigate the hack.
In October 2019, they helped the
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...
shut down the world's largest child abuse website.
In March 2021, they partnered with crypto compliance company Notabene to comply with the
FATF
The Financial Action Task Force (on Money Laundering) (FATF), also known by its French name, ''Groupe d'action financière'' (GAFI), is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat mo ...
's Travel Rule across jurisdictions. American business publication Fast Company referred to this partnership one of the top 10 most innovative joint ventures of 2022.
Noted investigations
Chainalysis has helped law enforcement recover cryptocurrencies from illegal enterprises. For example, the company helped law enforcement to recover over $1 billion from the take down of the dark web marketplace Silk Road. Further, the company also helped to attribute seven 2021 cryptocurrency thefts to the North Korean
Lazarus Group
Lazarus Group (also known by other monikers such as Guardians of Peace or Whois Team
) is a cybercrime group made up of an unknown number of individuals run by the government of North Korea. While not much is known about the Lazarus Group, resea ...