Track Cryptocurrency Across Chains: Tools, Tips, and a Video Guide

Learn how to track cryptocurrency across chains and swaps. Explore tools, techniques, and watch our video for a hands-on investigation example!

Cryptocurrency investigations have grown increasingly complex as cross-chain swaps and decentralized platforms make tracing transactions more challenging. In this article, we will break down the process of tracking funds across multiple blockchains and swap services. This will prepare you for a hands-on example we’ll explore in an accompanying video, where we delve into a real-world case study of tracing hacked funds.

Understanding Cross-Chain Swaps

Cross-chain swaps enable users to exchange cryptocurrencies across different blockchains without relying on centralized intermediaries. They leverage protocols like AnySwap, Wormhole, and others, often using bridges and smart contracts to facilitate these transfers.

When investigating such swaps, it’s crucial to understand how they appear on blockchain explorers:

Initial Transaction Details: The user initiates a transaction from a source chain. Blockchain explorers like Etherscan list the user’s wallet address, the smart contract interacted with, and the asset’s details.

A detailed view of an Etherscan transaction showing a successful bridge transfer, including wallet addresses, token amounts, smart contract interactions, and gas fees for cross-chain activity.

2. Inter-Chain Communication: Protocols use external calls or oracles to relay swap data. Transaction logs may include message hashes, recipient chain IDs, and other metadata.

A blockchain explorer’s transaction receipt event logs display USDC transfers, including sender and recipient addresses, data values, and indexed topics for tracking swap-related external calls.

3. Linked Transactions: Each swap typically references a destination chain and the recipient address, showing the link between the originating blockchain and the receiving network.

A blockchain transaction input data section displays token details, transfer amount, and recipient address for a cross-chain call, including the destination chain and recipient without the leading “0x.”

4. Token Representation: Wrapped or bridged tokens represent assets on the destination chain, reflected in token balances after the swap.

A transaction on Etherscan highlights a successful transfer of 34.6 ETH through Across Protocol, bridging assets from Polygon to Ethereum with wrapped Ether (WETH) recorded on the destination chain.

These components help investigators track funds from initiation to their destination, even across disparate networks.

A Real-World Example: Fixed Float Swaps

As you will observe in the video, one challenge for crypto investigators is tracking funds through services like Fixed Float. Fixed Float allows users to swap assets without KYC or registration, breaking the transactional chain and making tracing efforts more difficult.

Here’s an example scenario covered in the video:

Hacked Funds on Bitcoin: A hacker sends 1.41 BTC from a wallet to a Fixed Float deposit address.
Asset Conversion: Fixed Float processes the transaction on the backend, converting the BTC into USDT on the Tron network.
Tracking Challenges: Without precise timestamps and value conversion data, tracing these funds across chains would be nearly impossible.

Tools like Arkham Intelligence can help simplify this process. By analyzing Fixed Float as an entity and filtering transactions by value and timestamp, investigators can identify matching transactions and continue tracking assets on their new chain.

Tools and Techniques for Multi-Chain Tracking

Several tools are essential for investigating cross-chain swaps:

Etherscan: Tracks transactions, event logs, and token transfers on Ethereum and connected networks. Use it to identify external calls and inter-chain links.
Debank: A multi-chain tracker that visualizes swaps, lending, and other DeFi activities across wallets.
DEXTools: Monitors real-time liquidity and trading data, helping trace activity on decentralized exchanges.
Arkham Intelligence: Ideal for entity analysis, linking addresses, and tracking suspicious flows between chains.
Token View: Supports multiple blockchains, providing a comprehensive view of cross-chain swaps and token movements.

Combining these tools with timestamp and value-based filtering allows investigators to pinpoint transactions and reconstruct the asset’s trail across chains.

Applying These Concepts: Hands-On Example

In the video, we showcase how to leverage these tools to track funds moved through Fixed Float. We use Merkle Science to graph movement of the funds on the blockchain and Arkham Intelligence to:

Identify Fixed Float transactions.
Narrow down matches using BTC-to-USDT value ranges and timestamps.
Continue tracking the funds on the Tron network, pinpointing the exact destination wallet.

By following these steps, investigators can uncover the flow of funds, even in cases involving sophisticated obfuscation techniques.

Tracking Cryptocurrency Swaps: Tracing Funds Through FixedFloat

Final Thoughts

Cross-chain swaps present significant challenges to cryptocurrency investigations, but with the right knowledge and tools, it’s possible to trace funds across networks. Watch the accompanying video for a detailed walkthrough of a real-world example using Fixed Float and Arkham Intelligence. By mastering these techniques, you’ll be better equipped to handle the complexities of multi-chain investigations.

Explore Next

Bitcoin Mixing Explained: Key Insights and Forensic Analysis Tips

Discover how blockchain is transforming industries on the Blockchain Insights Hub. Follow me on Twitter for real-time updates on the intersection of blockchain and cybersecurity. Subscribe now to get my exclusive report on the top blockchain security threats of 2024. Dive deeper into my blockchain insights on Medium.

Ervin Zubic