United States Air Force Spent $800K On Crypto Services By Chainalysis

The United States air force spent more than $800,000 on Chainalysis crypto services, but why does it need the data? Let’s find out in today’s crypto news.

The United States Air Force spent a lot of money and agreed a third contract with Chainalysis which details they are paying for the cryptocurrency data subscription. Experts say that the Air Force could be using Chainalysis data in order to preserve national security. The Air force spent $800,000 for the services of the contract which is dated May 19, 2020, and follows two previous contracts from two years ago.

The contract is lacking a few details but a description tab references a cryptocurrency data subscription which implies that the Air force will use the blockchain analytics tools rather than using the analytics tool for the non-crypto work.  Chainalysis is among the few companies that examine transactions across a range of blockchain and uses the analytics tools to gather as much information as possible. It also works with many government agencies such as the SEC and FBI and the analytics tools are used to track criminal activity by using cryptocurrencies.

Casey Bohn, a crime specialist at NW3C said that Chainalysis could be providing services to the Air Force’s office of special investigations:

 “The OSI, for lack of a better term, is the Air Force’s internal FBI. Let’s say the Air Force lets a contract to Boeing, and there’s some accusation or supposition some way or another of some sort of fraud, waste or abuse, OSI would probably look into that on behalf of the Air Force.”

Chainalysis’ data could be helping the Office of Special Investigations dedicate more time for investigating crimes that involve crypto assets, as Bohn said:

 “Criminal activity involving cryptocurrency is, I hate to say this, on the rise, I think people are trying to be more novel in how they may be hiding assets. I personally have taught several IRS criminal investigations folks, and they’re starting to see in tax evasion and tax related crime, more and more cryptocurrency involvement.”

In addition, the Air Force could be looking into the nation state-level threats. CMO at CipherTrace John Jeffries explained that while the nation-state threats are diverse, some are extremely relevant to blockchain analytics:

 “It’s largely believed and perceived that most of the North Korean weapons of mass destruction have been funded through cryptocurrency thefts and ransomware campaigns.”