10 Ways Merkle Science Can Help with Crypto Investigations

Crypto investigations are intricate and require a multi-layered approach to uncover the truth. While many products offer value in isolated aspects of these investigations, Merkle Science stands out by delivering a comprehensive suite of tools that cover the entire investigative process. Our solutions empower businesses, organizations, and agencies with end-to-end support, allowing them to transform their approach to crypto investigations.

With Merkle Science, crypto investigators gain access to cutting-edge technology and robust features, streamline their workflows through enhanced monitoring and collaboration, and stay ahead of industry trends with tailored learning and development opportunities.

Below are 10 different ways that Merkle Science can help with crypto investigations.

1. Comply with Blacklists Instantly

Stay compliant effortlessly by getting instant notifications when an address appears on any blacklist.

There are many wallets and addresses already connected with known criminals, cybercrime groups, or terrorist organizations. Regulators and authorities often add these wallets to blacklists, prohibiting businesses from conducting any kind of transaction with them. For example, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) maintains a list of sanctioned crypto addresses that organizations should not do business with. Businesses that fail to comply with these blacklists face the possibility of financial penalties and other punishments.

Merkle Science’s Compass ensures businesses receive immediate notifications if an address appears on any blacklist, allowing them to take proactive measures and mitigate the risk of crime and a resource-draining investigation.

2. Continuous Monitoring for Real-Time Alerts

Get updates on suspicious wallets and transactions without lifting a finger.

Organizations frequently search the history, transactions, and links of a wallet that may be suspicious. While some searches trigger immediate alerts, others may initially appear clean but later become linked to illicit activities. For example, criminals can reactivate a long dormant address as part of a chain for laundering funds.

Merkle Science’s Compass offers continuous monitoring, automatically checking addresses for any changes in status, such as a link to a blacklisted wallet, enabling organizations to stay agile in thwarting crime.

3. Open Source Intelligence

Expand your investigation beyond the blockchain.

The blockchain is only one source of data. To cast a wider net, Merkle Science’s Tracker is compatible with social media sites and the dark web, common areas where criminals may communicate and interact. 

For example, ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operators often sell their software on the dark web, where they may advertise their wallet address to potential customers. By obtaining this data from open source intelligence, crypto investigators can identify criminals more quickly, track their behavior, and bring them to justice.

4. Behavior-Based Rules for Monitoring

Identify suspicious transactions using customized behavioral patterns.

While blacklists are important, they are not sufficient on their own. Criminals often use wallets that are not blacklisted, making it crucial to monitor transactions based on behavior patterns. 

Merkle Science’s Compass allows organizations to set specific rules for identifying suspicious activities, such as the common practice of breaking up stolen funds into smaller transactions. This real-time detection enhances the ability to catch illicit activities as they happen.

5. Multi-Chain and Layer 2 Chain Support

Trace funds across multiple blockchains and layer 2 chains effortlessly.

Criminals have become adept at laundering money across multiple blockchains, including layer 2 chains, to obscure their activities. Merkle Science’s Tracker provides extensive multi-chain support, including Ethereum Virtual Machine chains like Tron and layer 2 chains like Arbitrum and Optimism. This support for multiple blockchains and layer 2 chains mitigates the effectiveness of chain-hopping: No matter where criminals move their funds, Merkle Science can help you track them down. 

6. Visualize Transactions with Ease

See the flow of illicit funds clearly and intuitively.

While crypto investigators can technically use public ledgers or blockchain explorers for their work, visualizing the flow of funds this way is unintuitive: It is difficult to picture movement from tabular data. 

Merkle Science’s Tracker simplifies this process with advanced graphing capabilities, allowing investigators to easily picture where illicit funds originated, where they went, and where they ended up. This data visualization is crucial for determining the illicit trail and how and where to intervene.

7. One-Click Sharing for Seamless Collaboration

Share investigation insights with stakeholders instantly.

Crypto investigations often involve a wide range of stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, overseas partners, exchanges, prosecutors, judges, and regulators. Stakeholders must be able to share information easily with one another, so that the other partners can take action. For example, crypto investigators may want to share a graph that demonstrates how illicit funds ended up on an exchange, so that the business can freeze funds

Merkle Science’s Tracker makes collaboration simple with one-click sharing, allowing investigators to share their dashboards and findings easily. This feature ensures that critical information can be disseminated quickly and efficiently when it’s needed most.

8. Transparent and Reliable Attribution

Link wallets to real-world identities with confidence.

Attribution is a crucial part of any investigation, as it involves linking wallets associated with crime to real-world identities. Merkle Science provides a transparent methodology for attribution, which is essential for legal processes such as prosecution and sentencing. The clear, understandable process allows prosecutors and judges to rely on best-in-class technology, confident in the accuracy and transparency of the information.

9. Tailored Product Customization

Get solutions tailored to your unique needs.

Many blockchain solutions are one-size-fits-all, which may not meet the unique needs of every business. Merkle Science takes a customer-centric approach, a philosophy that Merkle Science Account Executive Ryan Berndt recently spoke about during his Crash Course in US Crypto Regulations, Compliance, and Blockchain Analytics webinar. 

Merkle Science works with stakeholders from the beginning to understand their requirements. This ensures that the implementation of Compass or Tracker is customized to solve each business’s specific challenges in compliance, risk management, and crypto investigation.

10. Comprehensive Learning and Development Opportunities

Equip your team with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed.

A significant challenge in crypto investigations is the knowledge gap among law enforcement and other stakeholders.74% of law enforcement agencies feel under-equipped for crypto investigation according to a July 2022 article from Cointelegraph. 

Merkle Science addresses this by offering a variety of learning and development resources. This includes on-demand training with live instructors, which is ideal for those who learn best through interactive sessions, as well as a certification in crypto investigation for those who prefer asynchronous learning. These resources ensure that all collaborators speak the same language, meet a certain level of domain expertise, and understand best practices in the sector.

These are the top 10 ways Merkle Science can optimize your crypto investigations and set you up for success. By leveraging these blockchain analytics tools and resources, organizations can strengthen their investigative capabilities, catch criminals more effectively, and assist authorities in prosecuting them. To experience these benefits firsthand, contact Merkle Science for a free demo and see how we can help create a safer business environment for the cryptocurrency industry.