Siren has joined forces with Chainalysis to enhance the tracking and disruption of illicit blockchain transactions.

Unveiled at the Chainalysis Links event in New York, the partnership seeks to address the need for sophisticated intelligence technologies to fight illegal cryptocurrency activities effectively.

Siren leverages Chainalysis’ Investigations API

Siren, known for its AI-driven investigative intelligence platform, serves top law enforcement, national security, and cyber threat investigators worldwide. By integrating and enriching data from various sources, Siren simplifies the search for intelligence and makes it accessible to individuals regardless of their technical skills.

Its partnership with Chainalysis will facilitate real-time identification of illicit activities across multiple data sources, enhancing the ability of investigators and analysts to trace transactions, identify criminal actors, and build compelling cases against them.

The collaboration leverages Chainalysis’ Investigations API to enhance large-scale investigations, generate new leads, and reveal connections between cases. Investigators will be able to prioritize and expedite their work by enriching datasets with insights.

“Cryptocurrency is no longer just a niche”

John Randles, CEO of Siren, said: “Linking to crypto across multiple data sources is pivotal for investigators. We’re delighted to announce the partnership here in New York at Links 2024. We were lucky to attend a couple of Chainalysis events last year and experience first-hand how the synergies in our offerings and missions.”

Shannon Hughes, Senior Director, Head of Business Development and Partnerships, commented: “Cryptocurrency is no longer just a niche specialty for elite cyber law enforcement units – our customers find connections to crypto across national security, crime, fraud, and cyber threats. This partnership enables investigators to combine Chainalysis data with other data sources to identify intelligence signals and actionable leads across specialties. This is the future of harnessing the transparency of blockchains to build a safer economic system.”

Chainalysis hired ex-IRS chief who took down Hydra

This week, the Blockchain forensics firm announced the hiring of James Lee, the former chief of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigations, as its Global Head of Capacity Building.

Lee, whose last day with the IRS was March 31, brings nearly three decades of experience in criminal investigations to his new role at the New York-based blockchain analytics firm.

In his capacity, Lee will be responsible for guiding law enforcement, regulatory bodies, and other organizations in using Chainalysis’s tools and data to combat financial crimes involving cryptocurrencies. He will report to Bas Lemmens, the company’s Senior Vice President of Global Revenue, and collaborate with teams around the world.

During Lee’s time with the IRS Criminal Investigations, there were notable achievements, such as taking down the Hydra dark web marketplace. Hydra was implicated in laundering ransom payments from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May 2021, an incident that resulted in fuel shortages along the U.S. east coast. Under Lee’s leadership, IRS-CI also played a crucial role in the takedown of other criminal enterprises, including a marketplace for child sexual abuse materials that accepted crypto payments.

Sumsub integrated with Chainalysis

KYC specialist Sumsub recently integrated with Chainalysis in a move that significantly enhances the full-cycle verification provider’s capabilities when it comes to compliance in crypto markets.

Leveraging Chainalysis’ extensive blockchain analytics platform and services, Sumsub’s Transaction Monitoring and Travel Rule solutions ensure regulatory compliance, secured data storage and automated crypto transaction monitoring for client companies.

Sumsub’s integration with Chainalysis and its Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) management model allows Sumsub to provide unified workflows and automated monitoring of transactions via a secure channel for the benefit of crypto businesses and their digital compliance needs. The partnership ensures that clients stay compliant as crypto regulations become more stringent and sophisticated.

The compliance solution mainly targets crypto exchanges, peer-to-peer marketplaces, and neobanks interacting with crypto for their customers. These firms now can set up automated crypto transaction monitoring and advanced analytics for deeper investigations and effective risk management in one unified dashboard.

With a Chainalysis key management model incorporated into the Sumsub full-cycle verification platform, they can enhance privacy and take complete control of their data, smoothly streamlining their KYC, AML, and transaction monitoring processes in one move.