Sanctions Evasion Reference

Blockchain analytics

The practice of clustering addresses and attributing them to real-world services or actors, using on-chain patterns and off-chain information.

reviewed

2026-08-20

Public blockchains record every transaction permanently, which makes them, unusually, a form of financial record that an investigator can read without a subpoena. Analytics turns that raw ledger into attributed flows by grouping addresses that are likely controlled by the same party and labelling clusters with known services.

Attribution is probabilistic and its quality varies with the vendor and the chain. Treating a cluster label as a fact, rather than as an inference, is the most common analytical error in this area.

Where this term is used

Related terms

  • Mixer — A service that pools virtual currency from many users and redistributes it, so that outputs cannot be readily linked to the inputs that funded them.
  • Chain hopping — Moving value rapidly between different blockchains, usually through bridges or swap services, to interrupt tracing that works within a single chain.
  • Virtual asset service provider — A business that exchanges, transfers, safekeeps or administers virtual assets for others, and which FATF expects to be licensed and supervised like other financial institutions.
  • Screening — Automated comparison of names, identifiers and other transaction data against sanctions lists and internal watchlists, at onboarding and on each payment.

Sources

  1. Crypto Crime Report. Chainalysis, 2024.
  2. Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry. U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control, 2021.

All glossary terms