CipherTrace to invest in Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Security

Blockchain security company CipherTrace announced a major venture capital financing to fund rapid growth. The company has raised $15M in venture capital from top Silicon Valley and New York venture capital firms with deep cybersecurity and crypto asset expertise. The round was led by Aspect Ventures and includes other notable investors such as Galaxy Digital, Neotribe Ventures, and WestWave Capital. Aspect’s Mark Kraynak will join the Board of Directors.

CipherTrace develops cryptocurrency intelligence, anti-money laundering (AML), blockchain analytics and forensics, and compliance solutions. These products are used by government, regulators, law enforcement investigators and auditors to enforce AML laws, combat crime and reduce fraud. Cryptocurrency exchanges also use the platform to comply with AML laws. Banks use CipherTrace to mitigate threats related to customer cryptocurrency activity.

CipherTrace blockchain analytics de-anonymize funds flow by actively gathering millions of data points weekly, and then applying machine learning to its massive data pool to trace flows to legitimate entities as well as criminal enterprises. CipherTrace was founded in 2015 by experienced entrepreneurs from the security and FinTech industries. The team at CipherTrace first began tracking Bitcoin criminal activity in 2011.

"CipherTrace is pleased to announce this strong backing from top-tier investors who share our vision that cryptocurrencies and blockchains need to be secured, regulated, and made safe so that they can scale globally," said David Jevans, CipherTrace CEO. "Our investors have decades of experience investing in proven teams and technology companies in the Internet security and financial technology industries. CipherTrace will join the ranks of these successful companies."

As the emerging leader in cryptocurrency security, intelligence and regulatory compliance, CipherTrace has been growing rapidly and profitably given the unprecedented global demand for its products and services. The company will use the new funds to expand its global reach and extend product functionality.

“Galaxy Digital is a CipherTrace customer and an investor,” said Greg Wasserman, Co-Head of Principal Investments at Galaxy Digital. “Appropriate AML technology is critical for the mainstream adoption of digital assets. Institutional investors are increasingly looking to platforms like CipherTrace to monitor the integrity of transactions with their counterparties.”

“Great blockchain companies will be forged as crypto assets achieve mainstream adoption,” said Mark Kraynak at Aspect Ventures. “We believe security and compliance with anti-money laundering and other financial regulations, as enabled by CipherTrace, will be a key first hurdle to mass adoption.”

“The CipherTrace team executes better than 99% of venture-backed start-ups,” said Aditya Singh of Neotribe. “This successful management team has worked well together at previous startups and has visible operational and scaling advantages over their less-experienced competitors.”

Warren Weiss from WestWave Capital said, “I am pleased to be able to work with this elite team of cybercrime experts. It is exciting to watch them make sense of and navigate this extremely high growth and rapidly evolving global regulatory landscape.”

Tuff Yen of the Seraph Group said, “We backed this management team at IronKey and are confident it their ability to win in this market.”