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Deloitte, Chainalysis alliance to give law enforcement a crypto edge

Big Four accounting firm Deloitte said the partnership could help authorities identify and take down bad actors hiding "behind the keyboard."

Professional services giant Deloitte is set to boost its clients’ blockchain-tracking capabilities following a strategic alliance with crypto analytics firm Chainalysis.

Announced during a Chainalysis conference in Washington DC on July 25, the tie-up will see Chainalysis’ blockchain datasets, analytics software and training programs assist Deloitte’s clients with their crypto forensic, investigative and compliance needs.

A Chainalysis spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the alliance had been in the works for years, with the aim of helping more organizations to adopt blockchain technology.

Thomas Stanley, president and chief revenue officer of Chainalysis said the collaboration is aimed at their mutual clients, including law enforcement agencies, regulators and financial institutions.

"We’re starting with a focus on regulators, law enforcement, and financial institutions given where they are at in their adoption of this technology and the unique overlap of our customer base," the spokesperson added, noting that it will be introduced United States first. 

"We're initially rolling this out in the United States, but it is something that other markets can readily adopt. It’s our belief that other global markets will follow suit."

In a document outlining the alliance, Deloitte said some of the challenges faced by government agencies include when cryptocurrencies are used to obfuscate transactions and launder the proceeds of crime, while the international regulatory landscape creates difficulty obtaining information from foreign exchanges.

Some of the challenges government agencies face when it comes to crypto. Source: Deloitte

Deloitte said the partnership with Chainalysis could help “identify the actors behind the keyboard and effectively prosecute them,” including tracing the flow of funds to high-risk or sanctioned entities. 

Related: How the IRS seized $10B worth of crypto using blockchain analytics

“Chainalysis will work with Deloitte’s blockchain and digital assets practice across cryptocurrency and digital asset risk, analytics, investigation, anti-money laundering/know your customer (AML/KYC), and regulatory compliance,” added Chainalysis.

Deloitte, known as one of the world’s Big Four accounting firms, recently posted over 300 job listings for cryptocurrency-related roles, 97 of which were based in the United States.

In late February, Deloitte announced a partnership with Web3 platform Vatom to provide immersive experiences to different industries, from using virtual reality for events, meetings and employee training to brands focused on building community engagement with metaverse experiences. 

Magazine: Tornado Cash 2.0 — The race to build safe and legal coin mixers

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Decentralized Storage Alliance seeks to bridge the Web3 gap through education and advocacy

The organization said that it intends to promote awareness and adoption of decentralized technologies, such as Filecoin, IPFS and Libp2p.

Decentralized storage network Filecoin has partnered with Protocol Labs and other participants within the Web3 ecosystem to launch the Decentralized Storage Alliance. According to the announcement, one of the main goals of the newly formed alliance is to help Web2 enterprises transition to Web3 through education, advocacy and best practices.

The Alliance said it hopes to achieve this by bringing together diverse viewpoints from leading Web2 and Web3 industry players, such as Advanced Micro Devices, Ernst & Young and data storage solutions provider Seagate. The organization aspires to become a trusted space where different companies can collaborate around Web3 technologies like decentralized storage in order to accelerate its adoption.

It also seeks to provide access to educational materials and technical resources that will improve the process of onboarding data to decentralized storage networks, and make it easier for new data centers to onboard to the network.

Stefaan Vervaet, head of network growth at Protocol Labs, claimed:

“With top-tier leaders across Web2 and Web3 coming together to explore the unrealized potential of decentralized technology, this Alliance has the power to transform the foundation of the internet.”

Related: Filecoin service provider announces move to Singapore in light of tightening restrictions in China

On Oct. 25, Cointelegraph reported that another Protocol Labs initiative launched CO2.Storage, a Web3 data storage solution that intends to enable transparency for carbon offsets and address traditional storage solutions for all types of digital environmental assets, including renewable energy credits. The initiative was designed with the intention of reducing the environmental impact of Filecoin.

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Crypto Market Integrity Coalition inducts 8 new members, plans training

The self-regulatory organization backed by Solidus Labs is known for its integrity pledge; BitGo, Bittrex and Merkle Science are among the new members.

The Crypto Market Integrity Coalition (CMIC) announced the induction of eight new members, the organization announced on Sept. 29. The organization now has 38 members.

CMIC members take a pledge to uphold market integrity and efficiency that the organization says:

“gives a unified voice to the crypto industry’s commitment to continually improving market integrity and collaboration with regulators.”

According to its statement, the CMIC is also developing market integrity training for digital asset markets to help compliance professionals counter manipulation.

The new CMIC members are digital asset trust and security company BitGo, crypto exchange Bittrex, blockchain analytics platform Crystal Blockchain, fintechs FinClusive and Oasis Pro Markets, Web3 risk mitigation platform Merkle Science, digital assets platform Tokenomy and forensic services provider VAF Compliance.

The CMIC is the brainchild of market surveillance firm Solidus Labs. Solidus cofounder and CEO Asaf Meir said, “Now more than ever before, it is clear that crypto’s potential depends on the ability to mitigate its new risks and provide demonstrable market integrity.”

Related: BitGo sues Galaxy Digital for acquisition breach, seeks $100M in damages

It was founded in February with 17 members that included such names as Coinbase, Circle, Huobi Tech and CryptoUK. A second cohort of 13 members joined the CMIC in April.

The CMIC is one of a number of self-regulatory organizations (SROs) that have arisen without authoritydelegated by regulators. CMIC member CryptoUK was the first such SRO, founded in 2018, with similar organizations arising in Japan and South Korea later that year. The Japan Blockchain Association had 127 members as of June 2022.

The CMIC pledge reads, in part:

“We support and seek to participate in digital asset markets that demonstrate Market Integrity. […] Digital assets and digital asset market structure may present novel forms of market activity and market manipulation. We agree to continually educate ourselves as to these unique challenges and how to address them.

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Tether, Bitfinex, Hypercore collab to launch encrypted P2P apps

The trio launched Holepunch with a vision to bestow control over data while breaking technology monopolies, among others.

Staying true to the “bear market is for building” motto, crypto exchange Bitfinex along with Tether (USDT) and Hypercore announced the launch of a fully encrypted platform, Holepunch, for building peer-to-peer applications. As part of the initiative, the trio launched Keet, an encrypted application capable of facilitating real-time audio and video calls, text chat and file sharing.

Partners aim to bestow control over data while breaking technology monopolies with Holepunch, according to the announcement. Tether and Bitfinex funded the development of the Holepunch platform. Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer of Tether and Bitfinex, will lead the new initiative as the chief strategy officer.

Speaking on behalf of Tether and Bitfinex, Ardoino highlighted the need to address the growing privacy concerns, stating:

“It [Tether and Bitfinex] believes that freedom of choice, communication and finances are the lifeblood of the future, and anything that will enhance those freedoms is worth amplifying.”

Holepunch currently operates as a closed source protocol in its alpha or pre-release phase, which will be moved to open source code by the end of 2022. In doing so, Holepunch will not use blockchain technology at its core and will instead move to an in-house payments API powered by the Lightning Network.

Developers building solutions on the Holepunch protocol will be able to use USDT as default for micropayments. However, the company is yet to disclose support for other cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

Related: Web3 platforms launch the Open Metaverse Alliance

Blockchain-based metaverse and Web3 platforms joined hands to form Open Metaverse Alliance for Web3 (OMA3), an alliance built on four core principles — transparency, inclusiveness, decentralization and democratization.

As Cointelegraph reported, the alliance will focus its efforts on specific metaverse-related topics, which include setting standards for nonfungible tokens (NFTs), protocols, transferable identity, portals between virtual worlds, mapping and indexing.

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Gemini, Chainalysis and 11 others join Crypto Market Integrity Coalition

The cryptocurrency industry is responding to the best-practices advocacy group’s call for a fair, stable and regulated market.

The Crypto Market Integrity Coalition, an organization founded two months ago by 17 cryptocurrency exchanges, firms and industry associations worldwide, announced 13 new members have joined.

The group is centered around a pledge endorsed by members’ CEOs or chief compliance officers that (among other things): “We will integrate principles that uphold Market Integrity and Market Efficiency into our operations and business strategy.” 

The coalition, or CMIC, was spearheaded by market surveillance firm Solidus Labs.

“To enable the promise of crypto and DeFi, we must as an industry be vocal about our commitment to address and mitigate the risks,” Solidus Labs vice president of regulatory affairs Kathy Kraninger said in an introductory video. Membership is open to all industry participants.

Founding members include prominent industry players Coinbase, BitMEX, Huobi Tech, Anchorage Digital, the Chamber of Digital Commerce and CryptoUK. Besides uniting the disparate crypto groups behind its business principles, the coalition plans to advance training programs and encourage a dialog with regulators. In addition, it will “consider data-sharing and shared-surveillance frameworks” among members.

New members of the coalition include Gemini, Robinhood Markets, Chainalysis, Elliptic, Kaiko and TRM Labs. New inductee Nexo said in a statement that its involvement with CMIC “stands […] alongside our longstanding track record for proactive conversations with regulators globally, stringent platform security procedures, and extensive commitment to KYC and AML processes.”

There are a number of crypto industry advocacy groups. GoodFi, launched by Radix in 2021, focuses on decentralized finance education, research and best practices. It has 55 member organizations and hopes to get 100 million people to put at least a dollar into DeFi by 2025. The Crypto Open Patent Alliance was launched in 2020 by Square (now known as Block). It has 33 members and maintains “a shared patent library to help the crypto community defend against patent aggressors and trolls.”

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XinFin (XDC) hits a new ATH after fresh partnerships and exchange listings

XDC price soared to a new all-time high shortly after a round of new partnerships, protocol integrations and exchange listings.

Enterprise adoption of blockchain technology is an important long-term goal of the cryptocurrency community because the integration of digital currencies with daily business activities will bring new users into the ecosystem and provide a boost to on-chain activity.

One protocol that has been gaining traction on the enterprise adoption front is XinFin Network (XDC), an enterprise-ready hybrid blockchain solution specifically designed to optimize international trade and finance.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after hitting a low of $0.0673 on July 20, the price of XDC rallied 190% to establish a new all-time high at $0.1952 on Aug. 21.

XDC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Three reasons for the growing momentum behind XinFin are the addition of the XDC Network to the global TFD Initiative, the release of the decentralized email solution LedgerMail and a growing ecosystem of partners and listing exchanges.

Adoption by a global trade network

One of the most significant developments for the XDC network was its addition to the global Trade Finance Distribution (TFD) Initiative, a consortium of trade originators, credit insurers, and institutional funders on a mission to boost automation and transparency in asset trading and risk distribution.

According to André Casterman, the Chair of the Fintech Committee at International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA), the addition of the XDC Network “enables the organization to bridge the $19 trillion trade finance asset class with any type of funder through tokenization and digital assets.”

The significance of this integration for XinFin cannot be overstated because it partners them with some of the biggest global financial institutions and leading service providers like AIG, Santander Asset Management, ING Bank, the International Chamber of Commerce, Standard Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Texel Group and Lloyds Bank.

The overall goal of the TFD Initiative is to create a more robust trade finance ecosystem by defining new technology-based market practices and transaction data specifications to help increase the accessibility and transparency of trade flows.

LedgerMail becomes the world’s first decentralized email solution

Another reason for XDC's surge came after the Aug. 4 release of LedgerMail, “the world’s first decentralized email solution,” which is powered by the XDC network.

According to the project’s Twitter feed, its mission is to provide the “highest level of security, privacy, encryption and prevention from email attacks in a decentralized way.”

Demand for the service got off to a hot start with the total number of signups surpassing 50,000 within the first week an new users also received 10 free XDC for signing up.

Partnerships and exchange listings

XDC adoption has also risen in recent weeks thanks in part to new partnerships for the network as well as several new exchange listings.

One of the bigger partnerships was its integration with Shopping.io, an e-commerce project that enables users to pay with cryptocurrencies for items on Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Etsy using. As an added perk, purchases made using XDC receive a 2% discount and users who also hold Shopping.io's native SPI token can receive an extra 12% off.

XDC also partnered with HAPI, an on-chain cybersecurity protocol for decentralized finance (DeFi) products that helps to increase security and help prevent hack attempts.

HAPI is a set of cross-chain smart contracts that are embedded into DeFi products and it allows them to reach a new security level. 

Several recent exchange listings have also benefited XDC as increased access has led to increases in its 24-hour trading volume. These include its July 8 addition to SimpleSwap and a July 31 integration with Simplex.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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