Chainalysis Acquires Fraud Detection Startup Using AI

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has entered the realm of artificial intelligence with its acquisition of a fraud detection startup. The purchase of Alterya, a tech firm utilizing AI agents to identify fraud, was reported to be around $150 million. Chainalysis confirmed the news in a blog post, emphasizing the acquisition's role in offering proactive fraud protection for payments and improving fraud detection in the Know Your Customer process for exchanges, blockchains, and wallet providers. Despite not being widely recognized in the crypto sphere, Alterya has partnerships with major players like Coinbase and Binance, monitoring over $8 billion in monthly transactions to combat authorized fraud. This acquisition follows Chainalysis' previous purchase of Web3 security platform Hexagate. The company highlighted the increasing threat of fraud in the financial sector, exacerbated by generative AI technology, which has made fraudulent activities more accessible and scalable. The FBI has warned about scammers using generative AI to target cryptocurrency investments, with Deloitte projecting significant economic losses due to deepfakes and generative AI scams by 2027.