Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed right here belong solely to the writer and don’t signify the views and opinions of crypto.information’ editorial.
That is an interview with Jonathan Levin, the co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, a number one blockchain information platform utilized by over 1,500 authorities businesses and monetary establishments to trace cryptocurrency transactions and fight illicit exercise performed by Selva Ozelli completely for crypto.information. Jonathan Levin formally assumed the position of CEO in December 2024, succeeding fellow co-founder Michael Gronage.
Beneath his management, Chainalysis has not too long ago targeted on increasing its presence in areas like Tel Aviv and Dubai, whereas ramping up M&A exercise with acquisitions like Transposer. Earlier than turning into CEO, Levin served as the corporate’s Chief Technique Officer (CSO) for almost a decade, main strategic initiatives, regulatory outreach, and authorities affairs.
Previous to Chainalysis, he co-founded and served as CEO of Coinometrics, which offered a few of the trade’s first blockchain intelligence dashboards. Levin is a outstanding voice in the cryptocurrency trade, continuously offering knowledgeable insights to policymakers.
He has testified earlier than the U.S. Senate Banking Committee and the Home Monetary Providers Committee a number of instances, most not too long ago in July 2025, concerning the position of digital belongings in illicit finance. He’s a mentor for the Techstars Alchemist Blockchain accelerator and continuously seems on TV, on platforms like C-SPAN, to debate blockchain safety and adoption.
Abstract
- Illicit crypto exercise reached about $154B to $158B in 2025, with stablecoins accounting for almost all of transactions.
- Chinese language-language cash laundering networks processed $16.1B in illicit funds, dealing with almost 20% of world crypto laundering exercise.
- AI-powered blockchain intelligence instruments at the moment are serving to investigators hint advanced transactions quicker as crypto crime turns into extra organized and state-linked.
1. Inform us about your academic and profession path that led you to working at Chainalysis
I studied economics at Oxford, the place I received obsessed with a easy query: how do monetary methods truly evolve, and what position does information play in making them work?
I received into Bitcoin early — not as a speculator, however as somebody fascinated by the economics of it. Right here was a clear monetary system, each transaction seen on a public ledger, and but virtually no one might interpret what was truly taking place. Crypto companies couldn’t get financial institution accounts as a result of they’d no solution to exhibit compliance. Legislation enforcement couldn’t hint funds. Regulators couldn’t assess threat.
That hole — between transparency in idea and opacity in follow — was the founding perception. Collectively with my co-founders, we realized that whoever constructed the information and intelligence layer for blockchains would turn into important infrastructure. That’s what Chainalysis grew to become.
What’s modified since then is the size of the chance. Ten years in the past, we have been explaining what blockchain was. Immediately, we’re constructing the belief layer for a world the place AI brokers shall be transacting autonomously on-chain. The core drawback — making sense of advanced monetary flows and figuring out threat — hasn’t modified. However the velocity, quantity, and class of what we have to analyze have elevated by orders of magnitude.
2. Inform us concerning the imaginative and prescient that led to the institution of Chainalysis
We based Chainalysis in 2014 as a result of we noticed that blockchain expertise had a belief drawback — and that belief drawback was an information drawback.
The catalyst was Mt. Gox. In early 2014, the most important crypto change collapsed after 650,000 bitcoins have been stolen. It was a clear system — each transaction was on a public ledger — however no one might interpret what had occurred. Funds have been transferring, and there was no dependable solution to hint them.
So, we constructed the instruments. We analyzed the Mt. Gox flows and decided that the change’s sizzling pockets keys had been compromised years earlier, with funds siphoned steadily over time. That work contributed to the identification and arrest of Alexander Vinnik, who was charged with laundering stolen funds by means of BTC-e.
That case proved the thesis: if crypto was going to scale, it wanted infrastructure for belief. Not simply compliance checkboxes — actual intelligence that would help investigations, defend customers, and provides establishments the arrogance to take part.
3. Inform us about Chainalysis’s expertise and enterprise mannequin for tracing digital belongings on blockchains.
On the core, we’re an information firm. We take uncooked blockchain information from throughout networks and rework it into actionable intelligence — grouping associated addresses, making use of proprietary evaluation, and mixing on-chain information with off-chain data to hyperlink exercise to real-world entities.
That intelligence powers every little thing. Investigators use it to construct instances and hint funds throughout wallets and chains. Compliance groups use it to observe exercise, display counterparties, and handle publicity to sanctioned or high-risk entities. The outcomes are measurable — our instruments have helped freeze or get well over $34 billion in illicit funds.
Anybody can construct a dashboard. What can’t be replicated is the proprietary information we’ve constructed over a decade — the entity mappings, the behavioral fashions, the relationships with governments and establishments in 60+ international locations that feed our intelligence. Unbiased researchers at TU Delft evaluated blockchain analytics suppliers and located our information had the very best accuracy, broadest protection, and lowest false-positive charges.
The place that is heading is equally necessary. We’ve not too long ago launched blockchain intelligence brokers — AI-powered capabilities constructed on high of our information platform. These brokers can analyze advanced transaction flows, enrich alerts, and generate investigative leads in minutes as a substitute of hours. They’re not generic AI instruments — they’re grounded in our proprietary information and designed for regulated environments the place explainability and auditability are non-negotiable.
The method I give it some thought: our information is the inspiration, the platform delivers it, and more and more, AI brokers are the interface. We’re transferring from a world the place people question our platform to at least one the place AI brokers work alongside investigators and compliance groups, scaling experience throughout complete organizations.
4. Can Chainalysis hint mixer cash or privacy-focused cash?
Whereas we don’t disclose the particular methods we use to investigate mixers or privacy-enhancing technologies, we are able to say that blockchain transparency nonetheless supplies significant investigative leads.
5. Chainalysis is closely utilized by world monetary regulators and private and non-private establishments to make sure compliance with Monetary Motion Process Power (FAFT) requirements. Inform us about Chainalysis’s clients and companies.
We serve greater than 1,500 clients globally — authorities businesses, regulators, regulation enforcement, monetary establishments, crypto companies, and more and more, enterprises which can be partaking with digital belongings for the primary time.
The widespread thread is that all of those organizations must function with confidence in an setting that’s evolving quick. We offer a blockchain intelligence platform that mixes large-scale on-chain information with superior analytics to assist them examine illicit exercise, handle threat, and meet regulatory obligations.
In the end, our position is to offer the infrastructure that allows organizations to have interaction with crypto confidently whereas defending customers and the broader monetary system.
6. Does Chainalysis get employed by people who’ve been hacked? If not, who ought to particular person buyers who’ve been harmed by crypto crime flip to?
We work with public- and private-sector organizations, not people straight. If somebody suspects they’ve been hacked, a very powerful factor is velocity — contact native regulation enforcement instantly and notify any platforms concerned, corresponding to exchanges or pockets suppliers. The quicker you act, the higher the probabilities of tracing and probably recovering funds.
What I’d add is that the instruments accessible to regulation enforcement have gotten dramatically higher. A decade in the past, tracing stolen crypto was a handbook, painstaking course of. Immediately, with AI-powered investigative instruments, businesses can observe advanced fund flows throughout chains and thru obfuscation methods a lot quicker than earlier than. That’s a significant shift in the chances for victims.
7. FATF cites Chainalysis report indicating that in 2025, illicit digital asset exercise reached a document excessive of roughly $154–$158 billion, with Stablecoins used in majority of those illicit transactions. Inform us about your report’s findings and why Stablecoins?
Our latest Crypto Crime Report, which analyzes exercise in 2025, reveals that illicit transaction quantity reached roughly $154–$158 billion. Whereas that determine displays the continued evolution of the risk panorama, it’s necessary to notice that illicit exercise nonetheless accounts for a really small share of whole crypto transaction quantity.
On stablecoins particularly — this isn’t stunning, and it shouldn’t be alarming in the way in which folks may initially learn it. Stablecoins have turn into the dominant medium for on-chain transactions, interval. They’re quick, they’re steady, they’re environment friendly for cross-border motion. So in fact, illicit actors use them — they use regardless of the market makes use of. That’s at all times been the sample.
The excellent news is each transaction is on a public ledger. The issuers can freeze belongings. The information path is wealthy. So, whereas the shift to stablecoins creates new challenges in phrases of quantity and velocity, it additionally creates monumental alternatives for detection and disruption — you probably have the precise information and the precise instruments. That’s the place we come in.
The actual query isn’t “why stablecoins?” — it’s “are we constructing the intelligence infrastructure quick sufficient to maintain tempo with how shortly worth is transferring on-chain?” That’s what we’re targeted on.
8. What are the latest trends in crypto crime?
Three issues stand out to me.
First, nation-states. That is not a fringe concern. In 2025, we noticed state actors — and I’m speaking about subtle, well-resourced governments — systematically leveraging blockchain infrastructure to evade sanctions and transfer funds at scale. It is a basically totally different risk than a ransomware gang or a darknet market. It requires a basically totally different stage of intelligence to counter.
Second, professionalization. Crypto crime has industrialized. You now have service-based ecosystems — laundering-as-a-service, infrastructure suppliers, brokers — that operate just like the again workplace of a felony enterprise. It mirrors what occurred in conventional monetary crime over a long time, nevertheless it’s taking place on a compressed timeline as a result of the expertise strikes quicker.
Third — and this is likely one of the most important findings in our 2026 report — the rise of Chinese language-language money-laundering networks. These networks processed $16.1 billion in illicit crypto in 2025. That’s roughly $44 million a day throughout almost 1,800 wallets, and so they now facilitate round 20% of identified illicit crypto laundering globally. They function by means of boards, Telegram channels, and escrow-style marketplaces, and so they’ve turn into the connective tissue linking disparate types of cybercrime worldwide. This isn’t a regional drawback — it’s a worldwide infrastructure drawback.
The throughline throughout all three trends is scale and velocity. The criminals are scaling. The query is whether or not the defenders — governments, monetary establishments, platforms — are scaling their intelligence capabilities on the identical charge. That’s the race we’re in.
9. Chainalysis not too long ago announced the primary blockchain intelligence brokers designed to assist organizations and investigators maintain tempo with the explosive rise of AI-enabled crypto crime. Inform us extra about this.
This is likely one of the most necessary issues we’ve completed as an organization, and it connects on to the place we see all the market heading.
Let me body the issue first. AI has basically modified the economics of crypto crime. It’s lowered the barrier to entry, it’s elevated the velocity and class of assaults, and it’s enabled felony operations to scale in ways in which weren’t doable even two years in the past. Scams that used to require human operators can now be automated. Social engineering that used to focus on people can now goal hundreds concurrently. The assault floor has exploded.
The protection facet has to evolve simply as quick — and actually, quicker. That’s what our blockchain intelligence brokers are about.
These aren’t chatbots bolted onto a dashboard. They’re AI brokers constructed on high of our proprietary information — greater than a decade of blockchain intelligence, attribution, and investigative experience — designed to work alongside human investigators and compliance groups. They will hint advanced transaction flows, enrich alerts, establish patterns, and floor actionable intelligence in minutes as a substitute of hours or days. And critically, each output is auditable and explainable. In regulated environments, that’s non-negotiable.
What makes this defensible is the information. You possibly can construct an AI agent on high of public information and get a mediocre end result. You construct it on high of the deepest, most complete blockchain intelligence dataset in the world — which is what now we have — and also you get one thing that truly works on the stage these issues demand. The information is the moat. The brokers are how we make that moat accessible to each analyst, each investigator, each compliance officer, no matter their stage of blockchain experience.
That is additionally a window into the place we’re heading extra broadly. We’re getting into an period the place brokers — not simply felony brokers, however legit business brokers — shall be transacting autonomously on-chain. The quantity, velocity, and complexity of on-chain exercise goes to extend by orders of magnitude. Human-only workflows gained’t sustain. The organizations that thrive would be the ones that pair human judgment with AI-powered intelligence. That’s what we’re constructing towards.
10. How can folks attain you?
You possibly can study extra about Chainalysis and our work at chainalysis.com, the place we recurrently publish analysis and insights.
Disclosure: The views and opinions expressed right here belong solely to the writer and don’t signify the views and opinions of crypto.information’ editorial.
