Blockchain analysis giant Chainalysis has acquired generative AI-powered fraud detection startup Alterya.
Alterya works with several major cryptocurrency exchanges and fintechs including Binance, Coinbase, and Block, as well as top financial institutions, to monitor more than $8 billion in transactions a month across crypto and fiat rails.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although press report suggest a price tag of around $150 million for the Tel Aviv-based startup.
Chainalysis says the deal enables it to provide real-time proactive fraud protection for payments and enhanced fraud detection during KYC for exchanges, blockchains, and wallet providers. Alterya has already helped top crypto exchanges decrease fraud by 60%, reduce scam-related disputes, and improve efficiency of manual operations.
In addition, Chainalysis is pitching Alterya to government agencies, noting that its insights can be tapped for lead generation into pig butchering, scams, and other emerging authorised fraud trends.
"Chainalysis will continue to build upon Alterya’s collection of fraud identifiers on fiat payment rails to provide insights to financial services firms on the fiat accounts where customers are losing money to fraud — often an early red flag before funds move into crypto," adds a statement.