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Onchain Analysis Report Says Terra’s Bitcoin Reserves Were Sent to Binance and Gemini

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Onchain Analysis Report Says Terra's Bitcoin Reserves Were Sent to Binance and Gemini

After the collapse of Terra’s once-stable coin terrausd (UST), a number of people wondered where the Luna Foundation Guard’s (LFG) bitcoin went, as the funds were supposed to be used to defend UST’s $1 parity. On Friday, the blockchain intelligence and analytics firm, Elliptic, published a blog post that summarizes where the bitcoin was sent, according to the firm’s network surveillance tools.

LFG Bitcoin Stash Deposited Into 2 Digital Currency Exchanges According to Elliptic’s Blockchain Analytics Software

While reflecting on the recent crypto market chaos and the Terra stablecoin implosion, a great number of people on forums and social media asked the question: “Where is LFG’s Bitcoin reserve?” For instance, this weekend on Twitter one individual wrote:

Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) had a bitcoin reserve that was worth over $3B before the UST and Luna crisis began. But the LFG reserve wallet is now empty but it was reported that Bitcoins weren’t used to calm the crisis. Then where did the Bitcoins go to? People need answers.

Furthermore, on May 13, Terra’s founder Do Kwon told the public that the team was planning to update the crypto community on the subject of the bitcoin (BTC) reserves.

“We are currently working on documenting the use of the LFG BTC reserves during the de-pegging event,” Kwon said. “Please be patient with us as our teams are juggling multiple tasks at the same time.” Following Kwon’s Twitter thread, the blockchain analytics company Elliptic published a blog post that explains the LFG’s BTC moves in more detail.

When the nonprofit organization LFG decided to move the bitcoin on May 9, Elliptic’s blockchain analytics software monitored the situation. After LFG revealed it would loan $750 million in BTC to market makers, Elliptic’s blog post details that Kwon clarified LFG would use the BTC “to trade.” Then Elliptic’s software caught two transactions worth 52,189 BTC sent to a new address tied to the LFG stash.

80,394 Bitcoin Moved From LFG’s Stash

In addition to the 52,189 BTC, LFG held another wallet with 28,205 BTC, and LFG’s entire bitcoin reserve added up to approximately 80,394 bitcoin (BTC) total. According to Elliptic, all the funds were sent to Binance and Gemini amid the market chaos.

“The entirety of this 52,189 BTC was subsequently moved to a single account at Gemini, the US-based cryptocurrency exchange – across several bitcoin transactions,” Elliptic said on Friday. “It is not possible to trace the assets further or identify whether they were sold to support the UST price.” The blog post adds:

This left 28,205 BTC in Terra’s reserves. At 1 a.m. UTC on May 10th, this was moved in its entirety, in a single transaction, to an account at the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Again it is not possible to identify whether these assets were sold or subsequently moved to other wallets.

Bitcoin.com News also looked into the onchain movements and confirmed that Elliptic’s summary was accurate. For instance, the LFG bitcoin wallet interacted with this bitcoin address, and the wallet is flagged as a Binance hot wallet. Oxt.me data has an annotation written by Ergobtc that says it’s the trading platform’s “central hot wallet.” The wallet was created on October 8, 2021, and 9.5 million BTC has passed through the wallet.

LFG’s bitcoin wallet also interacted with this address which also has an oxt.me annotation that says it’s a Gemini exchange address. The address created on June 13, 2017, has seen a total of 1,284,918 BTC pass through the bitcoin wallet. While the Binance hot wallet still contains BTC for hot wallet services, the Gemini exchange address has a zero balance on May 14, 2022.

What do you think about Elliptic’s summary of the LFG bitcoin stash and movements? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Chainalysis Launches Screening Tools Designed to Prevent Sanctions Evasion

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Chainalysis Launches Screening Tools Designed to Prevent Sanctions Evasion

Blockchain forensics company Chainalysis is launching two tools that will allow crypto companies to deny sanctioned persons and entities access to their platforms. The move comes amid concerns that Russia may use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions imposed due to its invasion of Ukraine.

Chainalysis Offers Crypto Industry New Sanctions-Screening Tools


As the military conflict in Ukraine intensifies, western allies continue to expand sanctions on Russia, including by targeting opportunities to employ crypto assets to circumvent the restrictions. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has joined these efforts, announcing two new sanctions-screening tools that will be free for the industry:

These solutions will enable the builders of decentralized web3 protocols like DEXs, defi platforms, DAOs and dapps, as well as practically anyone interacting with cryptocurrency, to easily validate that they aren’t interacting with cryptocurrency addresses associated with sanctioned entities.


One of the tools, an on-chain oracle designed for smart contracts, is already available and users can call it from another smart contract to check if an address is on a sanctions list. “The Chainalysis oracle is deployed on most EVM chains like Ethereum, Avalanche, BSC, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Celo,” the company explained.

An API, expected in April, is being developed for web and mobile user interfaces as well as web servers. With it, users will be able to verify if a cryptocurrency address is on a sanctions list. The Specially Designated Nationals list of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control will be taken as a reference.

Chainalysis says these free tools will allow crypto businesses and other organizations operating in the sector to quickly check a crypto address before allowing it to connect with their platforms and services. The company also offers a range of other solutions aimed at mitigating exposure to various risks stemming from different financial activities.

Cryptocurrencies have been in the spotlight since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine. The government in Kyiv and Ukrainian NGOs have been increasingly relying on crypto donations to fund defense efforts and address pressing humanitarian needs.

Ukraine has also sought to track down crypto wallets used by Russian officials and its Ministry of Digital Transformation recently announced a partnership with Crystal Blockchain to identify Russian crypto transactions in breach of sanctions. At the same time, major exchanges like Binance and Kraken have denied a request to unilaterally impose restrictions on all Russian users.

You can support Ukrainian families, children, refugees, and displaced people by donating BTC, ETH, and BNB to Binance Charity’s Ukraine Emergency Relief Fund.

Do you think crypto companies will employ tools like those developed by Chainalysis to prevent Russian attempts to circumvent sanctions? Tell us in the comments section below.

Chainalysis to Offer Lightning Network Monitoring Service to VASPs in 2022

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Chainalysis to Offer Lightning Network Monitoring Service to VASPs in 2022

On December 10, the blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis revealed that the company has added support for Bitcoin’s second-layer protocol the Lightning Network (LN). According to Chainalysis, firms like exchanges and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) can leverage the company’s Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) real-time transaction monitoring software in order to access compliant bitcoin deposits and withdrawals from a LN node.

Compliant Lightning Transactions

The blockchain surveillance and intelligence company, Chainalysis, announced on Friday that the company has added Lightning Network (LN) support to its list of blockchain and crypto-asset networks, the company currently monitors. For years, Chainalysis has monitored the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain, and these days the firm is not only monitoring BTC, but also a myriad of crypto networks and decentralized finance (defi) protocols.

Essentially, the LN is an offchain routed “layer 2” (L2) payment channel network that helps facilitate bitcoin (BTC) transfers faster and cheaper than onchain transactions. The Chainalysis LN support will provide VASPs with “Chainalysis KYT (Know-Your-Transaction) for real-time transaction monitoring will now be able to compliantly allow deposits and withdrawals of Bitcoin from a Lightning node.”

As of December 1, 2021, Chainalysis estimates there is “just under 3,600 BTC worth over $205 million is locked in public Lightning Network channels.” This has increased a great deal since the total value locked in the LN was around 468 BTC on January 1, 2021. Chainalysis also mentions that the LN L2 system is leveraged by countries such as El Salvador and large corporations like Twitter. Pratima Arora, the chief product officer at Chainalysis explains that the firm hopes compliant LN transfers will help the LN mature.

“Chainalysis exists to build trust in cryptocurrency in order to promote more financial freedom with less risk,” Arora said in a statement. “The Lightning Network solves many of the challenges that prevent the Bitcoin protocol from being used for micropayments and other transaction types that bolster financial inclusion. By enabling our customers to compliantly support Lightning transactions, we hope to grow the network’s popularity and help it scale.”

Lightning Network Support for Chainalysis KYT Customers to Launch in February

Chainalysis has expanded its resources a great deal and faces dozens of blockchain intelligence and monitoring competitors. The company raised $100 million at the end of June in its Series E funding round and the previous C and D rounds also saw $100 million capital injections. The company’s post valuation, after the Series E, was $4.2 billion according to the firm’s announcement at the time.

Speaking about the LN support, Chainalysis claims that for the first time, “VASPs can now offer support for Lightning transactions aligned with global regulatory best practices.” The product Chainalysis offers called Chainalysis KYT supports “pre-screening for Lightning withdrawals and behavioral alerts.” The blockchain surveillance and intelligence company further says that the LN support will be available for Chainalysis KYT customers in February.

What do you think about Chainalysis adding Lightning Network support? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Blockchain Surveillance Firm Chainalysis Raises $100 Million, Company’s Valuation Now $4.2 Billion

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Blockchain Surveillance Firm Chainalysis Raises $100 Million, Company's Valuation Now $4.2 Billion

The blockchain intelligence and surveillance firm Chainalysis announced the company has raised $100 million in Series E funding from investors such as Coatue, Benchmark, Accel, Addition, Dragoneer, Sequoia Heritage, and SVB Capital. The financing brings the company’s valuation to $4.2 billion and it aims to expand its resources and deepen data to cover more cryptocurrencies and focus on use cases like decentralized finance (defi).

Chainalysis Raises $100 Million, Blockchain Intelligence Firm’s Valuation Now Over $4 Billion

The blockchain Satoshi designed is a transparent ledger and transactions can be traced all the way back to the genesis block. This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that a person can pinpoint with accuracy the identity of the individual or organization behind a cryptocurrency transaction.

Nevertheless, this data does help an investigator get closer to that answer. In Bitcoin’s early days, blockchain surveillance was mostly nonexistent, but a few years after the network effect gathered momentum it became much more prevalent.

There are now over two dozen blockchain intelligence and surveillance firms and over the years these companies have upped the stakes by monitoring dozens of blockchains besides Bitcoin. They have also raised millions of dollars from investors and government contracts.

On June 24, the firm Chainalysis revealed it had raised $100 million from investors and it aims to expand operations a great deal. Chainalysis launched in 2013 and the company provides blockchain data to governments, institutions, and exchanges in over 60 countries. The company’s $100 million raise bumps Chainalysis up to a $4.2 billion valuation. The Series E funding round was led by Coatue.

Blockchain Surveillance Firm Chainalysis Raises $100 Million,
Chainalysis Data Platform

The Series E follows the $100 million Series D round the company raised in March 2021, and the funds will be used to expand services across the board. Three expansion concentrations are mentioned in the announcement which include deepening data. This would entail monitoring more cryptocurrencies and a focus on defi. Software is next on the list as Chainalysis aims to create software solutions for both the public and private sector.

Lastly, Chainalysis said it would provide more access via the use of APIs so “government agencies, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency exchanges” can leverage the firm’s data. The company has competition from the likes of well-known blockchain intelligence firms like Ciphertrace and Elliptic.

Other firms involved in the analytics and blockchain monitoring field include organizations like Sixgill, Tibco, Credits, Crystal Blockchain, Dune analytics, Madana, Bitrank, Ocyan, Alethio, Bison Trails, Blockpit, Blockmonitor, Bloxy, Postchain, and Scoreshain. Chainalysis’s Series D and E rounds bring the total amount raised by the firm to $365 million.

Blockchain analysis has been big business all across the globe and governments and law enforcement agencies have paid big money for these services. Between Chainalysis and Ciphertrace alone, it was estimated that in 2019 more than 80% of the cryptocurrencies in existence were tracked by blockchain surveillance.

What do you think about the blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis raising $100 million? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

OFAC Requests Chainalysis Subscription For Bitcoin Blockchain Surveillance

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The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control wants a renewed subscription to Chainalysis blockchain surveillance tools for monitoring Bitcoin.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a financial intelligence and enforcement agency within the U.S. Treasury Department, has requested a second subscription to license, training and support packages from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, according to a public contract notice.

“OFAC requires a commercial online blockchain tracing web-based application tool to equip investigators in its Office of Global Targeting (OGT) to analyze and track virtual currency transactions e.g. Bitcoin, in order to gather attribution information on involved parties that OGT may put on the [Specially Designated Nationals] List,” the notice reads. “This tool would specifically support cyber sanctions implementation undertaken by OFAC.”

OFAC made a similar request on May 4, 2021. The Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List includes parties that are sanctioned from conducting financial transactions by the U.S. due to money laundering or terrorist financing concerns.

While Bitcoin can facilitate pseudonymous financial transactions, every transaction is recorded on a public and immutable digital ledger. This allows blockchain analysis firms such as Chainalysis to determine details about Bitcoin transactions, sometimes including the real-world identities behind them.

There are some privacy layers that Bitcoin users employ to better obscure these transactions, such as coin mixing and CoinJoin. But it appears this latest subscription request is specifically targeting coin mixing services like Wasabi Wallet.

“This license also includes Wasabi Demixing services at no additional cost to OFAC, and with no limits to the number of requests,” per the notice. “Chainalysis meets OFAC’s requirements by effectively providing the following capabilities: Address clustering; Transaction flow mapping and graphing; Wallet explorer; Analysis of user behavior, exchange rate, trade, and market data.”