Crypto forensics startup Chainalysis raises $170M at $8.6B valuation – TechCrunch

Chainalysis, a startup that provides crypto investigation and compliance services, has secured $170 million in a Series F funding round led by GIC, a sovereign wealth fund of Singapore. The company, which is known for helping law enforcement nab illicit crypto activities, saw its valuation double to $8.6 billion from its round last June.

The funding news was first reported by The Information citing a source and comes at a time when investors are scrambling to come to terms with the crypto market crash. Total crypto market capitalization has plummeted to a ten-month low, with bitcoin trading below the $30,000 mark on Monday.

Prior to this new round, the firm had raised $366 million from investors including Benchmark, Accel, Paradigm and Coatue. It opened offices in Singapore and Tokyo in 2020 to “double down” on its APAC presence, and as of today, it serves clients including government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and cybersecurity companies across over 70 countries.

Most recently, Chainalysis was credited as helping journalist Laura Shin track down the suspect behind the DAO hack in 2016 that involved a loss of $11 billion of ether.

Some investors worry the crypto crash might chill the funding craze in the space, but as of the first quarter, things were still looking bright. Cointelegraph Research showed over $14.6 billion was poured into crypto infrastructure, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized finance (DeFi), and other web3 startups in Q1, which accounted for nearly half of last year’s total funding.

Indeed, we’ve seen some mega funding rounds in recent times. Singapore-based crypto trading and asset management startup Amber Group is reportedly raising a new round at a $10 billion valuation; eleven months ago it had just reached the unicorn status in a $100 million financing round. Crypto exchange KuCoin’s valuation surged to $10 billion in a $150 million raise announced this week.