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Consulting firm AlixPartners is partnering with Chainalysis to improve tracking of crypto transactions and conduct forensic investigations on them. The collaboration equips AlixPartners with the skills necessary to monitor crypto transactions and contribute to Chainalysis’ investigations. The consulting firm entered the crypto sector through the FTX bankruptcy case, which was tasked with tracing billions of dollars in missing crypto following FTX’s collapse in November 2022. AlixPartners is also rendering services to blockchain gaming platform, Gala Games, in a dispute with Wright Thurston.
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AlixPartners, a consulting firm known for helping bankrupt companies, is teaming up with Chainalysis to better track crypto transactions. The collaboration was announced on October 31 with the aim of advancing capabilities in tracking digital assets and performing forensic investigations on them.
With this collaboration, AlixPartners folks have been learning the ropes of how to investigate crypto transactions and will lend their expertise to Chainalysis clients. After years of working on traditional financial investigations, AlixPartners is now dipping its toes into the crypto scene, starting with the FTX bankruptcy case.
Founded in 1981, AlixPartners is a heavyweight in the finance advisory and consulting sector, particularly around bankruptcy cases. One of their most famous cases was their involvement in the Bernie Madoff scandal in 2008, where they retrieved a significant portion of the $17.5 billion stolen from investors.
FTX, the now-defunct crypto exchange, hired AlixPartners to figure out where billions of dollars in missing crypto could be following the company’s collapse in November 2022. The director of investigations at AlixPartners, David White, is on the case.
AlixPartners has also worked with Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin, and has provided expert opinion in tracing crypto assets in other court cases. They’re also helping out the blockchain gaming platform, Gala Games, with their dispute with Wright Thurston.
Director of investigations at AlixPartners, David White, says fraudsters in the crypto world are reminiscent of market manipulations seen in the 80s and the dot-com era. White says, “Fraudsters just discover new places as markets and technology evolve.” He believes that the crypto and DeFi markets are their newest playground and that manipulation methods from the past are returning due to “limited oversight and ample opportunities.”
With more attacks on DeFi, AlixPartners is focusing on governance attacks on decentralized organizations and smart contract exploits amongst other things. David White mentions, “To deal with these complex issues, you need expertise in crypto, accounting, digital forensics, and cybersecurity — and our team has all of that. This allows us to keep pace in this rapidly changing landscape.”
Source: Cointelegraph