Chainalysis has recorded growth in 2020, with the New York-based firm recording a 65% increase in number of customers. The growth has been fueled by an increase in demand from public sector agencies as more governments become interested in the digital currencies space.
In its October update, the blockchain analysis firm revealed that it had recorded 100% growth in its recurring revenue year-on-year in Q3 2020.
Chainalysis attributed the growth to an increase in demand from governments as they seek insight into digital currency transactions. Recent positive regulatory actions have also allowed more private sector companies to venture into digital assets, the company stated.
To meet the increased demand, Chainalysis is expanding its team, hiring Rakib Azik as the new vice president of finance and Betsy Bevilacqua as the vice president of information security. Azik joins the company after decades in consumer product and software companies, most recently playing a key role in a successful IPO for software company MongoDB.
Bevilacqua joins Chainalysis after executive roles at Fortune 500 companies including Facebook and eBay where she served in cybersecurity roles.
Chainalysis also hired in its legal, market development and technical solutions departments. The new hires come less than a year after the company laid off 20% of its workforce in late 2019 to focus on profitability.
Founder and CEO Michael Gronager described Chainalysis as an integral player in the mainstream adoption of digital currencies. He commented, “Chainalysis builds trust and brings legitimacy to the future of finance. When law enforcement and regulators become comfortable with digital assets, exchanges are able to grow and financial institutions can enter the ecosystem to safely and responsibly capitalize on this growing asset class.”
Chainalysis has continued working with both governments and private entities to crack down on illegal activities involving digital currencies. It recently jointly won a $1.25 million contract to help the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to crack down on dark coins. The IRS intends on using solutions developed by Chainalysis to track dark coin transactions to specific users.
Speaking to Forbes, Gronager dismissed these dark coins, including Monero and Zcash, as niche coins that can’t be used at scale. “There will be privacy coins and there will be privacy features but they’re niche products. Long term it’s not something we should be very concerned about,” he stated.
Aside from governments, the firm has partnered with several digital currency service providers to provide investigative tools that help its clients to tie blockchain transactions to real-world entities.
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