Cryptocurrency Compliance Firm Chainalysis Plans Expansion, Receives Funding From Benchmark

On April 5, 2018, investigative blockchain firm Chainalysis officially launched Chainalysis KYT (Know Your Transaction), a real-time compliance system for cryptocurrency exchanges and financial institutions.

“We have opened KYT to a small group of early customers, and they have already seen a 20x improvement in the speed of account reviews,” the company said in a statement. “We’re excited to officially open this solution to exchanges and financial institutions everywhere, which represent the fastest growing segment of our business today.”

In its announcement, Chainalysis called 2018 “the year that we are introducing multi-currency support,” sharing that the company wants to move beyond the bitcoin blockchain. “To start, we are launching Bitcoin Cash as part of Reactor, our investigation software, for our law enforcement and government customers, and we plan to expand to at least 10 cryptocurrencies by the end of the year.”

A cartoon accompanying the press release included bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Ripple.

In addition to outlining its planned expansion, Chainalysis shared that it received $16 million in Series A funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Benchmark.

Sarah Tavel, the Benchmark general partner who led the deal, noted the importance of compliance outfits like Chainalysis, saying, “All these regulated institutions want to participate [in cryptocurrency transactions], but they need to understand with whom they are transacting and where their funds are originating.” She went on to intimate that because Chainalysis can meet these needs, its a “meat and potatoes company.”

According to Crunchbase, Chainalysis also received funding from Digital Currency Group (DCG) during its Series A. Seed round investors included FundersClub, Point Nine Capital, CVP Management, Techstars, and DCG.

As ETHNews previously reported, Chainalysis has signed contracts with a plethora of government entities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Drug Enforcement Agency among others.

Earlier this week, we reported that one of Chainalysis’ competitors, CipherTrace, may soon be hired by the SEC to enhance the agency’s monitoring of the cryptocurrency markets.

Matthew is a writer with a passion for emerging technology. Prior to joining ETHNews, he interned for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as well as the OECD. He graduated cum laude from Georgetown University where he studied international economics. In his spare time, Matthew loves playing basketball and listening to podcasts. He currently lives in Los Angeles. Matthew is a full-time staff writer for ETHNews.

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