Blockchain intelligence platform Chainalysis has raised $30 million in new investment, led by venture firm Accel, a growth-stage venture capital firm. The 75-person startup, which has offices in New York, Washington DC, and Copenhagen, provides financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and law enforcement with a platform to detect and investigate cryptocurrency money laundering, fraud, and compliance violations.
Chainalysis is also selling its bitcoin-tracing technology and compliance software to banks and brokers to monitor and link digital identities to Cryptocurrencies .
The company, which has now raised over $47 million in total funding, intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations.
The New York-based firm is best known for its Chainalysis KYT solution for token issuers which helps them comply with regulatory requirements across different jurisdictions. Founded in 2014 by Jonathan Levin, Jan Moller, and Michael Gronager, Chainalysis invests across Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, and other top cryptocurrencies.
Enormous regulatory overhead
The cross-border and stateless nature of cryptocurrencies throws up different challenges to regulators, even if they decide to devise formal guidelines to govern the asset class. As such, digital assets operators, including crypto exchanges, are increasingly turning to compliance solutions to help provide background checks on their customers as they find themselves under increasing scrutiny from regulators over possible violation of securities and AML rules.
Commenting on the news, Chainalysis CEO and co-founder Michael Gronager said: “While other companies in our industry are pulling back, Chainalysis is investing in building foundational technology for the future of cryptocurrency. We are focused on empowering new cryptocurrency use cases like stablecoins and supporting businesses and governments globally as cryptocurrency regulation becomes more defined.”
“Thanks to its deep crypto expertise and unique technology, Chainalysis has quickly become the industry benchmark for blockchain analysis and compliance technology,” said Botteri, partner at Accel and based in London.
“Chainalysis’s vision is to make cryptocurrency compliance a new standard for financial services as the ecosystem matures. We look forward to supporting them across Europe, the U.S., and Asia,” added Amit Kumar, partner at Accel and based in Palo Alto.
