Ciphertrace Announces Enhanced Monero Tracing Capabilities for Governments

Crypto compliance firm Ciphertrace has announced enhanced tools for tracing Monero transactions. “Ciphertrace takes Monero tracing capabilities to the next level with the ability to follow the flow of funds backwards from the transaction of interest to its source,” the company claims.

Ciphertrace Claims to Have ‘Enhanced’ Tools to Trace Monero Transactions

Blockchain analytics and crypto compliance firm Ciphertrace announced Thursday “enhanced Monero tracing capabilities for government agencies and financial institutions.” The announcement details:

Based on research funded partially by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ciphertrace offers next-generation visualization tools for Monero tracing.

“Ciphertrace takes Monero tracing capabilities to the next level with the ability to follow the flow of funds backwards from the transaction of interest to its source,” it adds. “The new enhancements offer customers the ability to prepare detailed visual reports to better trace suspicious activities.”

Dave Jevans, Ciphertrace’s CEO, commented: “The availability of this enhanced Monero tracing bolsters the viability of privacy coins for the long-term, assuring regulators that exchanges, OTC desks, and other virtual asset service providers will be able to comply with global anti-money laundering requirements while continuing to accept monero [XMR] transactions.”

Carol Van Cleef, chair of the Blockchain and Digital Assets Practice at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, noted that “Tracing Monero transactions has presented significant challenges for many organizations,” elaborating:

Ciphertrace’s unique technology and new visualization enhancements for tracing Monero transactions are a big step forward for crypto exchanges and financial institutions that need more transparency into Monero transactions as they work hard to manage money laundering risks related to privacy coins.

In addition, Ciphertrace applied for two U.S. patents for its Monero tracing technology in November last year.

The Monero community is skeptical about Ciphertrace’s Thursday announcement, however.

Twitter user “Seth For Privacy,” host of the privacy-focused Opt Out Podcast, pointed out that the announcement by Ciphertrace provides no details and the company has made a similar claim before.

In August last year, Ciphertrace announced the “world’s first Monero tracing capabilities for law enforcement, government, and virtual asset service providers.” Monero proponents disagreed, however, that the tool announced could actually trace the privacy coin’s transactions. “It is extremely unlikely that Ciphertrace can trace Monero to the remote extent that they can trace any other coin,” Justin Ehrenhofer, a crypto compliance professional, explained on Twitter at the time.

A couple of months after Ciphertrace claimed to have a tool to trace Monero transactions, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hired crypto intelligence firm Chainalysis Inc. and data forensics firm Integra Fec LLC to provide tools to track Monero transactions. This suggested to the crypto community that the solution offered by Ciphertrace was not sufficient.