chainalysis

Chainalysis data shows that cross-border stablecoin capital flows increased by 77.5% year-on-year. While the overall scale has expanded, the capital flow remains highly concentrated.Chainalysis identified 4,708 new inter-country transfer paths, but these new paths only carry about 2.64 billion dollars, accounting for a small proportion of the total statistical amount of 220.3 billion dollars, indicating that cross-border flows of stablecoins are still dominated by a few major channels.

According to The Block, based on the seventh annual Geographies report by blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, during the 12 months ending June 30, 2026, the scale of global cryptocurrency economic activity shrank by only 1.6%, from $9.5 trillion to $9.4 trillion. During the same period, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market fell by about 50%, shrinking by $2.1 trillion, marking the most severe cryptocurrency bear market since 2022. The report states that the decline in economic activity is much smaller than the decline in market capitalization.Capital flows showed divergence. Funds flowing into exchanges, DeFi protocols, and other cryptocurrency services decreased by 4.3% to $8.9 trillion; domestic P2P transfers surged by 302.9% to $228.7 billion; cross-border stablecoin flows grew by 77.5%, rising from $124.2 billion to $220.3 billion. Chainalysis noted that its cross-border statistics are somewhat conservative, as they exclude transfers where the sending and receiving countries cannot be confirmed, and pointed out that this growth comes from payments averaging about $3,000, which are far from institutional levels and more aligned with everyday use cases such as personal payments to vendors, cross-border remittances, or transferring savings.Stablecoins demonstrated better value retention during the market capitalization decline compared to other cryptocurrency assets, with global on-chain balances dropping from $860 billion in September 2025 to $440 billion in June 2026, while stablecoin balances remained between $98 billion and $109 billion during this period.

Chainalysis released the "Cryptocurrency Tax Report: Data from Specific Countries," estimating that the scale of global cryptocurrency-related taxable activities is approximately $457 billion, covering transaction gains, on-chain income, and digital payments. The report states that it uses on-chain data to map these activities by region and country, providing tax authorities with a geographic view of potential taxable activities within their jurisdiction.Among them, stablecoin payment flows are the largest and most widely distributed category globally. The report also analyzes cross-border channels and their impact on direct and indirect tax obligations, demonstrating how on-chain intelligence can help tax authorities identify high-value, high-risk wallets to determine enforcement priorities.

According to Cointelegraph, a report by Chainalysis shows that in the past 12 months, the number of times attackers stored malware instructions or infrastructure information on public blockchains has surged by 420%, with state-sponsored hackers contributing about two-thirds of the new activity each quarter. Chainalysis linked previously unattributed activities on Tron, Aptos, and BNB Smart Chain to the North Korean-backed organization UNC5342.The report points out that the encoded pointers in Tron and Aptos transactions direct infected devices to the same BSC transaction, which contains encrypted server addresses and configuration data used to connect to remote access and data theft infrastructure. Information on public blockchains remains accessible even after domain names, servers, or code repositories are shut down, enhancing the persistence of malware activities. In 2025, North Korean hackers used similar technology called EtherHiding to implant coin theft code into smart contracts.Additionally, since July 2025, the volume of malicious blockchain writes has increased by 440%, when high-capacity open-source Chinese AI models began to have the ability to generate malicious code. Eric Jardine, head of cybercrime research at Chainalysis, stated that a clear temporal correlation was found, but it could not be proven that the attackers used these models.Chainalysis also identified threat actors suspected of being linked to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, writing encoded command and control routing data into the Bitcoin blockchain and sending small payments to well-known addresses historically associated with Satoshi Nakamoto, which are unrelated to the attackers and serve only as a permanent public location for infected devices to receive update instructions.

Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis estimates that France's potential taxable cryptocurrency activity will reach $9.4 billion by 2025, including $5.2 billion from payments, $2.5 billion from capital gains, and $1.7 billion from mining and staking income. French taxpayers reported only €368 million in net income for the 2024 fiscal year, involving about 24,000 people, an increase from approximately 7,700 people and €150.8 million in the previous year.Chainalysis stated that the non-compliance rate for cryptocurrency taxes in some countries may exceed 90%. The EU's eighth directive on administrative cooperation, DAC8, came into effect on January 1, 2026, requiring cryptocurrency service providers to collect user identity and transaction data. Tax authorities in member states will start exchanging relevant records cross-border from September 30, 2027; CARF currently covers about 14% of the world's potential taxable on-chain activities.

Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Claims Court, accusing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of illegally awarding a $94.6 million exclusive contract to competitor TRM Labs. This contract provides forensic software and support services for investigations by the Department of Homeland Security's task force, with a performance period from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027. Chainalysis claims this is the largest blockchain analysis contract awarded by the U.S. government to date.In the complaint, Chainalysis pointed out that ICE issued a Request for Information (RFI) on May 28, which included 18 questions regarding capabilities such as a proprietary fraud victim database, AI agent data retrieval, automatic notifications for virtual asset service providers (VASP) to execute voluntary freezes, and collaboration with stablecoin issuers. However, many of the RFI requests did not appear in the final Statement of Need released less than two weeks later, while ICE's market research determined that Chainalysis could not meet the needs based on RFI standards. Chainalysis also noted that "sexual extortion," which was not mentioned in the RFI, became one of the three main task areas in the Statement of Need, and some requirements closely matched TRM's proprietary product architecture.Chainalysis claims it was the only company to submit a capability statement, but ICE completed its market research the next day, determining that TRM was the only vendor capable of meeting all the requirements, and did not pose any follow-up questions to it.

Chainalysis' latest report shows that the potential taxable on-chain cryptocurrency activity globally will reach at least $457 billion by 2025, while the OECD's Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) covers only about 14% of the on-chain taxable activities. The report estimates that the United States contributes approximately $112.6 billion, with North America leading at $134.6 billion, followed closely by the European Union at $125.1 billion.This estimate includes income generated from realized gains, mining, staking, and lending, as well as payments denominated in crypto assets, but does not include trading activities within centralized exchanges. The CARF will start data collection on January 1, 2026, across 48 jurisdictions, including the UK and EU, requiring eligible crypto platforms to collect customer and tax resident information and report transaction data to domestic tax authorities for cross-border sharing.The report points out that the CARF's design, centered around crypto intermediaries, is the main reason for the coverage gap. Colby Mangels, a former OECD advisor involved in the development of the CARF, stated that the framework is designed around intermediaries that conduct crypto transactions as their business, which leaves a significant amount of decentralized finance activities outside the reporting scope due to the lack of centralized operators or custodial relationships. Mangels noted that tax authorities are focusing on the progress of anti-money laundering regulations, including when DeFi platforms or their operators should be considered regulated crypto service providers.

Data shows that the global potential taxable cryptocurrency activity reaches $457 billion, of which the CARF framework can only cover about 14% of the capital flow.

According to Bitcoin.com, blockchain analysis company Chainalysis announced the results of "Operation Lighthouse": this multinational operation focused on networks related to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) crimes, investigating 29,120 cryptocurrency addresses and digital identifiers, covering over 100 surface web and dark web platforms, forums, and distribution networks, generating 14,300 investigative leads, and identifying over 7,700 suspicious accounts and associated suspects across 125 countries.The operation was organized by the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance in New York, involving at least 9 law enforcement agencies, more than 13 private entities and non-profit organizations, including Europol, the Australian Federal Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the National Crime Agency of the UK. Chainalysis stated that the related leads may subsequently result in account restrictions, arrests, and prosecutions, with law enforcement outcomes expected to continue until 2027, and plans to expand this collaborative model to other cryptocurrency crime activities.

According to CoinDesk, Chainalysis organized a multi-day operation called "Operation Lighthouse," utilizing blockchain intelligence to investigate networks disseminating child sexual abuse materials. The operation is headquartered at the National Cyber Crime Forensics and Training Alliance in New York and collaborates with global law enforcement agencies such as Europol, the Australian Federal Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the UK's National Crime Agency.The operation investigated over 29,000 cryptocurrency addresses and digital identifiers, identified more than 100 related forums and hubs, and generated over 14,000 investigative leads, with suspects located in 125 countries, some of whom are registered sex offenders. Several cryptocurrency companies participated, including payment company Block and nonprofit organizations like the Internet Observation Foundation.Gavin Sather, Senior Project Manager for Anti-Child Exploitation at Binance, stated that the transparency of blockchain makes it difficult for criminals to hide their crimes for long periods.

According to Decrypt, blockchain forensics company Chainalysis Government Solutions filed a procurement protest on July 27 in the U.S. Federal Claims Court, opposing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awarding a contract worth approximately $94.6 million to competitor TRM Labs through a sole-source method.The contract period is from July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, involving blockchain forensics software and support services for Homeland Security Investigations into fraud, cybercrime, and sexual extortion cases. Chainalysis believes that ICE's decision is arbitrary and unreasonable. TRM Labs joined the case as an intervenor defendant on July 28, defending the contract alongside the U.S. government.The court allowed Chainalysis to temporarily seal the complaint, with oral arguments scheduled for September 2; ICE stated that after approximately 6 days of market research, it determined that none of the 8 responding companies could meet the requirements.

Chainalysis Government Solutions has sued the U.S. government in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over an exclusive contract. Chainalysis claims that the Department of Homeland Security/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (DHS/ICE) bypassed the normal competitive process and directly awarded the work to TRM Labs. They are requesting the court to stop this action.TRM Labs has joined the lawsuit as an intervenor, defending the award of the contract, with oral arguments scheduled for September 2. The U.S. Court of Federal Claims is responsible for hearing nationwide claims against the U.S. government, typically involving contract disputes and bid protests. Both Chainalysis and TRM Labs sell blockchain analysis tools for government agencies to track cryptocurrency transactions, and they are now competing for government business in court.

According to The Block, Chainalysis' latest report shows that in the first half of 2026, cryptocurrency holders experienced violent robbery incidents (referring to forcing victims to transfer crypto assets through means such as kidnapping, home invasion, and coercion), resulting in over $30 million in property losses.Based on current trends, the total annual losses could exceed the historical record of $58 million set in 2025. The report mentions that France has become a high-incidence area for such attacks, and the information leak incident involving high-net-worth crypto investors from the French tax authorities has further broadened the target selection range for criminals.Chainalysis also stated that such violent crimes are increasingly affecting the victims' families, with the proportion of home invasions and kidnapping cases continuing to rise.

Chainalysis posted on platform X that the Coldcard hack is particularly devastating for Canadian Bitcoin holders. Our analysis of the attackers and victims found that Canadian BTC holders accounted for 25% of the attributable losses.According to estimates compiled by Galaxy Research, the losses could be as high as $110 million, and we analyzed the geographical distribution of this ongoing hacking attack. Users in Australia, the United States, and Thailand also experienced significant losses.

According to a report by Chainalysis, the 2026 World Cup has driven on-chain prediction market trading volume to reach $20 billion since January, along with $24 million in digital collectibles trading volume since May 2025. During the five-week period of the event, nearly 400,000 wallets interacted with the on-chain prediction market, generating approximately $5.7 billion in trading volume, with World Cup-related markets accounting for about 63% of the total prediction market volume during the same period.In addition, FIFA's official digital collectibles platform, FIFA Collect, allows around 100,000 fans to exchange digital assets for match tickets, and its strict KYC process means that the platform has almost no exposure to illegal funds compared to decentralized prediction markets.

According to Bitcoin.com, the Singapore Police Force's Anti-Fraud Centre and Cybercrime Investigation Department, in a six-week joint anti-fraud operation from April 16 to May 31, 2026, collaborated with Coinbase, Coinhako, Gemini, Independent Reserve, OKX, StraitsX, and Upbit to identify potential fraud victims using blockchain analysis tools from Chainalysis and TRM Labs. They conducted over 145 targeted interventions through phone calls and on-site visits, preventing potential losses exceeding $4.2 million.Coinbase Singapore posted on X on July 10, stating that it collaborated with the Singapore Police to prevent over 145 individuals from losing a total of more than $4.2 million due to fraud. The Singapore Police stated that they will continue to work with cryptocurrency exchanges and other private sectors to combat cybercrime.

According to CoinDesk, blockchain analysis company Chainalysis has released a new methodological proposal aimed at establishing a unified on-chain fund tracking standard framework for law enforcement agencies and investigators, to identify address clusters and determine their possible control relationships.The proposal defines the on-chain analysis structure in the form of "ontology," focusing on systematically breaking down the currently unstandardized concept of "cluster" in the industry into wallet segments and functional roles, and describing on-chain relationships through a two-layer structure: the first layer defines the transaction graph structure, and the second layer assesses inference confidence.Chainalysis stated that the framework aims to enhance the interpretability and legal applicability of on-chain forensic methods, and is designed and validated based on its practical experience in relevant cases within the U.S. Department of Justice, including the analytical application in the mixing service Bitcoin Fog case.The company's Chief Scientist Jacob Illum pointed out that the goal of the proposal is to answer "on what evidence basis can these addresses be considered to belong to the same entity," while emphasizing that on-chain analysis itself cannot directly identify the ultimate user identity and still requires legal investigative methods combined with centralized entities such as exchanges.Chainalysis indicated that the standard proposal is currently open for discussion within the industry, hoping to promote the formation of more unified technical specifications for on-chain analysis methods in the fields of law enforcement and compliance.

According to a report by Chainalysis, over the past six months, at least $36.7 million has been stolen from protocols with unverified source code, involving protocols such as Truebit, Trusted Volumes, Aperture Finance, and Ekubo. Attackers are searching for vulnerabilities by decompiling the original bytecode. AI-assisted vulnerability exploitation development is accelerating this trend, as large language models can scale the identification of vulnerability patterns.Chainalysis points out that unverified contracts lack community review and are often excluded from bug bounty programs. The barrier to AI decompilation and vulnerability analysis is rapidly decreasing, allowing attackers to systematically scan thousands of unverified contracts. Protocols should verify all contract code, audit the contracts actually deployed, expand the coverage of bug bounties, and implement real-time on-chain monitoring. Each unverified contract is a potential target for automated scanning, and relying solely on obfuscation as a security measure is no longer effective.

According to The Block, blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has released a latest report indicating that as the gray market peptide industry scales surpasses an annualized $100 million, leading suppliers are accelerating the adoption of Bitcoin and stablecoins as primary settlement tools.In Q1 2026, cryptocurrency inflows into the industry reached $32 million, a month-on-month surge of 159%. Due to traditional banks and credit card payment channels generally imposing bans on prescription-grade compounds and unregulated substances, a large number of Chinese chemical manufacturers are turning to cryptocurrency to complete transactions, with high-value orders particularly favoring stablecoins to avoid price volatility risks.

A recent report from blockchain analysis company Chainalysis points out that compliance standards in the cryptocurrency industry are tightening significantly, with about 47% of organizations entering the market in 2026 having pre-warning standards that can reach the strict levels of the top 10% of the industry in 2020. This indicates that the entire ecosystem is maturing rapidly, with newcomers equipped with more aggressive monitoring measures from the outset.The report shows that companies' "direct monitoring" of funds coming directly from known illegal sources has become consistent and strict, but there is still a significant gap in "indirect monitoring" of funds flowing through intermediary addresses. For example, the indirect risk warning thresholds for categories such as ransomware and fraudulent stores on cryptocurrency trading platforms are often 10 to 100 times higher than direct thresholds. The Chainalysis team points out that this gap between direct and indirect monitoring creates opportunities for illegal actors. Companies that can bridge this gap will not only enhance their regulatory defenses but also distinguish themselves as trustworthy counterparties.The report suggests that this indicates the industry is in a transitional period, having achieved specialization in direct risk management but not yet treating indirect risks with the same rigor. The elevation of industry compliance standards is a response to increasingly stringent regulations and ongoing threats from entities such as North Korean hacker groups. In 2025 alone, hackers linked to North Korea caused approximately $2 billion in cryptocurrency losses.