ORS CryptoHound is a multi-blockchain platform for analysing, investigating and reporting on BTC, ETH and ERC-20 tokens transactions. It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. An investigation by ORS CryptoHound revealed highly unusual activity that took place on December 1, 2018.
“This investigation is one of the early case studies showing AI’s potential in blockchain and cryptocurrency analysis,” said Fabrizio Fontana, Chief Analyst of the ORS CryptoHound research team. “Our goal is to provide a free and easy-to-use platform for everyone who wants to collect as much data as possible about a specific blockchain address or transaction.”
ORS CryptoHound
CryptoHound’s functionality includes:
- tracking the money flows for a specific address
- visualizing a token portfolio
- calculating historic token values
- generating bank-like statements
- and more.
End users include:
- cryptocurrency traders
- financial analysts
- compliance professionals.
The analysis and conclusions
Having analyzed the one hundred largest Ethereum transactions for the last quarter of 2018, ORS CryptoHound discovered some patterns in the behavior of the six wealthiest wallets:
- all of them transferred enormous amounts of ETH on the same day, with a total value of almost half a billion US$
- each of the addresses shared a similar portfolio breakdown, ranging from a 92% to 98% share of OMG tokens
- these wallets appeared to have the same creation day and followed a similar pattern of cycling the holdings through multiple transactions.
The analysis, eventually, showed the initial tokens ending up equally distributed between thirty-nine new wallets. Each new wallet held precisely 150,000 ETH. In total these accounted for some 5% of the total Ethereum supply.
The investigation did not identify any specific person or organization that might have been behind the interrelated wallets. However, ORS’ hypothesis, derived at the end of the research, suggested the existence of a ‘crypto whale’ attempting to fake decentralisation. This hypothesis indicated that this individual (although it could be an organization or fund) believed it was possible to “separate the ETH and OMG holdings, thus protecting the integrity of the Ethereum brand”.
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
In the much scorned and doubted world of cryptocurrencies there is the risk that ‘digital value’ can disappear without the owner knowing why. This is the Achilles limb (far more than a heel) of electronic ‘money’.
Enter ORS’ CryptoHound. While it cannot rescue that which has ‘dematerialised’, it is a tool for searching and examining what has occurred in the opaque world of cryptocurrencies. Hopefully there will be more and more of these tools coming available. In existing they become a threat to the malicious and criminal – and may (slowly) establish some form of credibility for digital currencies.
