Arkham Intelligence: Unmasking Blockchain Addresses with Machine Learning

Arkham Intelligence is an analytics platform that assigns names to blockchain addresses. Founded in January 2020 by Miguel Morel, the company's early backers include Tim Draper, Joe Lonsdale, and Sam Altman.

The platform uses machine learning to determine and catalogue the owners of blockchain addresses, creating a network map of connected addresses. This allows users to see which addresses are attributed to the same entity, such as an exchange or project.

In July 2023, Arkham launched the Intel Exchange, a marketplace for tips where users can post bounties for someone to disclose the identity behind a particular address. The platform's data has been used in criminal proceedings, including the case against Sam Bankman-Fried, and has helped describe money laundering patterns.

The company's analysis is based on two ingredients: behavior on the chain itself and knowledge from outside sources. Traces on the chain include clustering of addresses that appear together as senders in one transaction, while external knowledge comes from public sources such as annual reports and social media posts.