Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis company, today announced the integration of Chainalysis Reactor investigation software with BITPoint Japan (BITPoint), a Japan-based cryptocurrency exchange, to identify and trace funds and provide comprehensive investigation support across multiple cryptocurrencies.

Following a large hack of BITPoint’s exchange in July 2019 that resulted in $28 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen, BITPoint used Chainalysis Reactor to identify the stolen funds by tracing over one million transfers to their cashout destinations. Once located, Chainalysis issued alerts to cryptocurrency businesses who received BITPoint’s stolen funds, informing them of the Bitcoin addresses involved.

In 2019, BITPoint was one of 12 exchanges hacked, up from a total of 8 exchanges hacked in 2018. The median amount of funds stolen via exchange hacks also increased 6x year over year.

“Businesses like BITPoint are increasingly targets of hacks, especially those located in Asia,” said Jason Bonds, Chief Revenue Officer, Chainalysis. “Our goal at Chainalysis is to not only help manage difficult situations like hacks, but also to arm our customers with the proper investigation software and support to ensure long-term regulatory compliance. That’s why we’re investing in the Japanese market to provide local support.”

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Chainalysis serves as a strategic partner to financial institutions, governments, and cryptocurrency businesses around the world, providing expertise on sophisticated cryptocurrency crime and money laundering tactics, techniques, and procedures. Chainalysis Reactor is the investigation software that connects cryptocurrency transactions to real-world entities, enabling cryptocurrency businesses and law enforcement to combat criminal activity such as fraud, extortion, and money laundering on the blockchain.

Through Chainalysis Reactor, law enforcement and businesses like BITPoint can quickly and efficiently identify suspicious transactions and connect them to real-world entities, which is particularly important in Asia where the number of cryptocurrency-related businesses continues to grow and become targets for hacks.

“Chainalysis’s industry leading investigation software and professional services team helped guide us through an extremely difficult, challenging time at BITPoint,” said Takashi Tashiro, General Manager Corporate Planning Dept. at BITPoint. “After seeing the tremendous capabilities of Chainalysis Reactor and working with the team under significant pressure, we realized the importance of continuing to work alongside Chainalysis to maintain ongoing investigations of suspicious activity and build a safe, robust platform for our users.”

Chainalysis recently released research examining the increasing sophistication of hacking techniques.

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SOURCE Chainalysis Inc.