Chainalysis bets on automation to scale onchain investigations beyond developers

Blockchain analytics company Chainalysis has rolled out a new automation feature aimed at broadening access to onchain investigative and compliance tools beyond technical users.

The feature, called Workflows, allows investigators and compliance teams to run predefined blockchain analyses without writing code, reducing reliance on custom SQL or Python queries.

Chainalysis told Cointelegraph that the tool is intended to standardize common investigative processes with prebuilt templates, making them easier to repeat and apply across multiple cases, as the company adapts its data products for a wider range of users.

Chainalysis’ Workflows library. Source: Chainalysis

“What previously required technical expertise and lots of time, can now be done by any user in minutes,” said Ekim Buyuk, senior product manager at Chainalysis. “Instead of asking users to understand data schemas, it asks investigation-level questions such as which actors, wallets, or time frames matter.”

Buyuk said fraud and scam networks are often quick to adopt new technologies to scale their operations, pointing to Chainalysis research indicating that AI-enabled scams extract 4.5 times more money from victims. He added that the pattern illustrates the kinds of activity investigators and compliance teams are increasingly being asked to monitor.

One challenge in investigating scams is that the amount stolen from one victim may not seem like much on a relative scale, but blockchain analysis can uncover fraud networks with hundreds or thousands of victims at scales in the billions of dollars.

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Crypto scams and fraud at the end of 2025

A recent report from Chainalysis estimates that crypto scams and fraud drained about $17 billion in 2025, driven by a surge in impersonation schemes and the increasing industrialization of fraud operations that rely on AI, deepfakes and professional money-laundering networks.

Several incidents late in the year underscored those risks. On Jan. 2, an attacker drained hundreds of wallets across Ethereum Virtual Machine–compatible networks, stealing sub-$2,000 amounts per address in what onchain investigator ZachXBT described as a broad but low-value exploit that could be related to the Ledger hack.

Social-engineering attacks also persisted, with ZachXBT recently identifying a suspected scammer who impersonated Coinbase customer support and stole about $2 million over 2025.

Crypto Scams and Fraud in 2025 report. Source: Chainalysis

Even so, blockchain security company PeckShield said overall crypto hacking losses declined sharply in December, with total losses from hacks and exploits falling to about $76 million, down 60% from November’s $194.2 million.

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