As the popularity of cryptocurrencies grows every day, blockchain investigation is a relevant tool for tracking financial transactions. Innovations in analytics make it possible to monitor cash flows, thereby controlling processes. Blockchain is a decentralized digital data ledger where a specific chain of blocks stores transaction information.
Blockchain transaction investigation is an indispensable tool for identifying illegal activities in the cryptocurrency sphere. This service allows you to learn about completed payments in an unchanged and transparent form.
How to investigate blockchain transactions?
When talking about blockchain as an investigation tool, it should be noted that each operation is recorded in chronological order and this information is freely available to all users. The transparency of the history of financial actions allows legal representatives of law enforcement agencies to identify fraudulent transactions and track cash flows.
Blockchain as an investigation tool allows you to learn:
- the transaction amount;
- the time of the operation;
- where the funds were transferred;
- who made deposits to the account.
Blockchain investigation involves the use of special analytical tools, the most popular among them:
- Chainalysis and CipherTrace – services that help identify suspicious patterns.
- Elliptic – a tool that helps detect criminal activity.
Electronic assistants excel at their tasks, resulting in the detection of probable schemes of fraudulent operations, various scams, and financial manipulations.
Tracking blockchain transactions
Anyone can use the public ledger, where information about completed transactions is freely available.
The history of monetary operations can be studied using block explorers.
What details can users see with this resource?
- Transaction ID – code associated with a specific operation
- Sender's address – the section shows which cryptocurrency address, as well as the volumes of operations conducted
- Fees – this block demonstrates how much the transaction costs in terms of commission fees. This concerns cryptocurrencies, as in most cases a fee is charged for the payment
- Recipient's address – this cell indicates the final destination and each address shows the amount
- Status information – an important stage that finishes the process. For the transaction to be valid, it must receive confirmation from a validator. An unconfirmed operation will have the status "not received" and is pending.
In some networks, transfers take a long time and it is quite possible that the data statistics will not be complete until the operation is finished.
Theft of cryptocurrency and blockchain
Among the common types of crimes in the cryptocurrency sphere is asset theft. This happens for various reasons: options for exchange hacks are not excluded, and phishing attacks also become more active.
Blockchain technology allows determining the direction of stolen funds and is effective for identifying fraudsters.
- Mixing method and "cleaning" services – fraudsters often resort to such virtual tools as "mixers" or "laundries," which mix funds from various sources to hide the origin of the transaction. This greatly hinders and obstructs the investigation, but analytical tools highlight and identify the original resources from which the transfer was made. Such methods help analyze transactions and identify fraudulent links.
- Suspicious patterns – during analytical activities, atypical behavior is identified that demonstrates the process of money laundering or attempts to cover tracks. Fraudulent actions during blockchain investigation are indicated by:
- frequent transactions with unchanged recipients;
- splitting large sums into parts and sending them simultaneously;
- use of unpopular and unknown exchanges;
- tracking template chains allows detecting schemes designed exclusively for cryptocurrency theft and blockchain is an effective assistant in this matter.
- Monitoring stolen capital – there are services that help track stolen money and warn of fraudsters' intentions to use them. Whale Alert and Crystal Blockchain are systems for analyzing cryptocurrency transactions and tracking large cash flows. Platforms allow setting up notifications about transactions with funds that were stolen – this way you can timely learn about cryptocurrency theft and block the account to prevent repeated transactions.
With blockchain investigation, users can analyze fraudulent schemes and track funds even after a certain time. Monitoring fraud cases in the blockchain helps protect against financial losses and prevent money laundering. For cryptocurrency platforms, this is an excellent tool to ensure a positive reputation and confirm reliability.
Blockchain fraud investigation
Despite various systems for protecting funds, fraudsters still find loopholes to steal money. The process of detecting cryptocurrency fraud and other digital investment products provides a high level of transaction transparency. With blockchain fraud investigation, using specialized techniques and approaches, one can decrypt deals and detect digital traces. These steps are an important stage in the fight against cybercrime. A comprehensive process with active advanced technologies helps track unauthorized movement of funds.
Thanks to innovative services, significant opportunities have emerged for considering crimes in the cryptocurrency sphere. With the use of blockchain as an investigation tool, it is possible not only to find stolen money but also to speed up the process of law enforcement operational actions in search and simplify the work of investigative structures.