Glossary term
Cryptocurrency tracing
Definition
Following the flow of cryptocurrency transactions across wallets, exchanges, and services to connect illicit activity with identifiable actors. A core dark-web investigation skill, since hidden markets and services settle almost exclusively in cryptocurrency.
In practice
Public blockchains are a paradox for criminals: pseudonymous, but permanently recorded. Tracing follows the money across the ledger until it reaches a regulated exchange that knows a customer's real identity, at which point lawful process can do the rest.
It is a patient technique, not a magic one. The work is in clustering wallets, spotting mixers and bridges, and building a transaction path solid enough to put in front of a court.
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