- Chainalysis acquired Alterya, a fraud detection startup, for $150 million.
- Founded in 2022, Alterya uses AI to detect scams targeting financial and crypto companies.
- The acquisition reflects a broader appetite for “agents,” a type of AI that operates autonomously.
Even before leaving stealth mode, Alterya, a startup that uses AI agents to detect fraud, is being acquired by blockchain giant Chainalysis, Business Insider has learned from multiple sources.
The total amount of the acquisition was approximately $150 million, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Alterya raised $9.8 million in seed funding from Battery Ventures, Y Combinator, NFX and Nyca.
A graduate of popular Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, Israel-based Alterya has developed AI-based technology that uses agents to detect and prevent scams targeting financial institutions, fintechs and crypto service providers . The startup claims it can detect malicious digital identities on websites, social media, text messages, and more.
Its clients include Coinbase, Square and Binance. The startup, founded in 2022, is the fruit of the imagination of Israeli entrepreneurs Elad Fouks and Shahaf Gonen.
Chainalysis provides crypto and forensic analysis services and helps financial institutions like Barclays and BNY Mellon identify criminal activity and ensure regulatory compliance. To date, the company has raised $538 million; it last raised money in 2022 at a valuation of $8.6 billion.
This acquisition is representative of an increased appetite for AI agents, which broadly constitute a set of AI tools capable of performing tasks autonomously. Sam Altmanthe CEO of OpenAI, recently predicted that 2025 would be the year the first agents “join the job market”. Venture capitalists are swooning over the promises of these digital colleagues.