Chainalysis acquires AI fraud detection startup Alterya

Chainalation acquired artificial intelligence-supported fraud detection startup Alterya.

The blockchain analysis platform announced the acquisition on January 13, with a Business Insider report detailing that Chainalytics completed the deal for $150 million. No financial details were disclosed in Chainalytics’ announcement.

Alterya’s artificial intelligence-supported architecture allows fraudsters to be detected before they reach their victims. The startup is currently collaborating with leading players in the industry, including Binance and Coinbase. Through these partnerships, Alterya currently helps track over $8 billion in transactions and benefits more than 100 million end users.

The Tel Aviv-based company raised $9.8 million in a seed funding round that attracted interest from venture capital firms Y Combinator, Battery Ventures, NFX and Nyca.

The acquisition of Alterya adds to Chainalytics’ recent deal for web3 security platform Hexagate. The company has also partnered with financial advisory platform AlixPartners to strengthen its crypto compliance and tracking services.

“With this acquisition, Chainalytic can now provide real-time proactive fraud protection for payments and advanced fraud detection during KYC for exchanges, blockchains, and wallet providers,” Chainalytics wrote in its blog post.

Chainalytics sees Alterya as an important step in its mission to combat fraud and fraud in the crypto industry. In 2024, the industry suffered major losses of more than $3 billion due to hackers and fraudsters.

Experts have warned that the increasing use of generative AI by attackers could lead to even greater losses. In early December, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that fraudsters were using artificial intelligence to make crypto-related scams harder to detect.

According to the FBI, artificial intelligence makes it easier to trick crypto users by allowing criminals to create realistic content on fake sites.