Leading Bitcoin and cryptocurrency operator Huobi Group, which reports over $8.7 billion in 24-hour trading volume, has integrated a new tool designed to detect illicit activity and automatically freeze suspicious accounts.
According to a company press release, the new on-chain analytics tool, dubbed “Star Atlas”, flags abnormal transactions in real time, suspends accounts and then conducts a follow-up investigation.
The company says it wants to fight bad actors on a global scale. One of its key objectives is to shake a long-held stigma about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general – that they are easily manipulated by criminals.
Says Ciara Sun, Huobi’s vice president of global business,
“It’s estimated that only a small percentage of cryptocurrency transactions are illicit, but any incident—regardless of size – is a stain on the entire industry,”
Star Atlas has been in development for over a year, spearheaded by leading crypto security experts. It takes a deep dive into the dark web and other networks potentially masking illegal transactions. The tracking system deploys a visual user interface so that Huobi administrators can trace transaction paths of illicit activities.
“Additionally, Star Atlas maintains a large address library with tens of millions of tags and tens of thousands of blacklisted addresses, which is updated and expanded automatically to allow Huobi to more efficiently detect malicious accounts and even dark web transactions among numerous complex transactions. The system also automatically monitors every on-chain transaction for markers of high-risk activity.”
The Singapore-based exchange has several offices across the world, including Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, enabling traders and investors in over 170 countries to buy, sell and exchange leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Litecoin. Huobi reportedly plans to reenter the US market where it will be subject to strict regulations.
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