Crypto exchange Bittrex signs up for Chainalysis KYT solution to identify suspicious activity

Bittrex is the latest cryptocurrency exchange to adopt Chainalysis’ real-time monitoring software, CoinDesk reported.

Speaking to the news outlet, Bittrex executives said that the exchange is adopting the software, Chainalysis KYT (Know Your Transaction), to flag suspicious activity across several cryptocurrencies traded on its platform. This includes bitcoin, ETH, bitcoin cash, litecoin, dai, and gemini.

Chainalysis KYT is a real-time anti-money laundering (AML) compliance solution for monitoring large volumes of cryptocurrency transactions to identify high-risk behavior. More than 100 financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges have reportedly signed up for Chainalysis KYT.

Last month, Chainalysis enhanced the KYT software with a new real-time alert functionality, which generates alerts whenever a transfer involves a risky counterparty and crosses a value threshold.

Bittrex Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer John Roth said that although Bittrex is already regulatory compliant, Chainalysis KYT, with its built-in knowledge base of suspicious addresses — “dark net sites, child exploitation sites” — puts Bittrex a step ahead.

“Having real-time information coming in from which we can make risk decisions is really an amazing step forward, and frankly one that’s not available to traditional financial institutions,” Roth said (as quoted by CoinDesk).

Jonathan Levin, Chainalysis’ chief security officer, told CoinDesk that the solution automates much of the review process of Bittrex. However, while the software will most likely flag criminal transactions, a compliance analyst would still need to determine if the threat is a valid one and file a suspicious activity report with regulators accordingly.

TokenPost | [email protected]