FAQs
We are sure your question will be covered in the FAQs below, but if not, feel free to book in a call with us to learn more about Crystal Blockchain and our products.
Contact usWho is Crystal Blockchain?
Crystal is an Amsterdam-headquartered blockchain analytics company that builds solutions to streamline crypto compliance operations and aid investigations into financial crime. Crystal works globally with customers in the digital asset industry, banking and regulatory sectors and enforcement agencies. Crystal’s all-in-one blockchain analytics tool provides blockchain analytics and compliance tools to streamline Know Your Transaction (KYT) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes to detect financial crime and streamline operations.
What is Crystal Expert?
Crystal Expert is an all-in-one blockchain analytics tool for compliance teams to monitor crypto transactions and screen entities to meet global regulatory anti-money laundering requirements. It is also used by investigators to identify bad actors and trace the flow of illicit crypto transactions. Crystal Expert provides visualizations of crypto transactions and customer networks, up-to-the minute data and transaction monitoring for thousands of cryptocurrencies in real-time.
Who are Crystal’s customers?
Crystal’s customers are banks, crypto exchanges and businesses, virtual asset providers, government agencies and independent investigators.
Learn more about each sector on the following pages:
Which cryptocurrencies does Crystal Expert currently support?
Crystal currently supports 335 blockchains. These include Bitcoin, Tether, Ethereum (including ERC-20, ERC-721), Ethereum Classic, Binance Smart Chain (including BEP-20), Tron (including TRC-20), Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Stellar, Ripple, Dogecoin, Dash, Zcash, Algorand, EOS, Solana, Matic, Cardano, Radix, Velas, Klaytn, Celo, Avalanche, Fantom, Moonbeam, Cronos, NEAR, Oasis, Optimism, Polkadot, Tezos with more coins to be added soon.
Can Crystal Expert be used as part of an AML programme?
Yes. Crystal Expert provides real-time risk assessment tools, transaction monitoring and screening capabilities to meet regulatory requirements and can be calibrated in line with your firm’s risk policies and procedures.
Can Crystal Expert detect dark market addresses and service providers?
Yes. Crystal continually updates the database in Crystal Expert to provide up to date information on thousands of dark market services addresses. In addition to identifying many darknet entities, Crystal produces regular in-depth market analyses and trend reports to ensure our customers are informed. Visit our resources page to find our latest reports.
How does Crystal collect data about know high-risk wallets and other entities?
Crystal’s Data and Intelligence Team regularly collects, processes and analyses information from a variety of open sources; this includes proprietary access to high risk and illicit services as well as repositories such as data leaks. Crystal Blockchain does not, and will not, collect or process information about private individual ownership, notwithstanding the publication on a document such as an international sanctions list, legal proceeding or similar which our client would require for compliance with local laws.
Can users amend or add data to Crystal Expert?
Yes. Crystal constantly updates its list of entities. However, should you come across a discrepancy please inform our team at [email protected] describing the issue.
How can users check Crystal’s list of known entities in the system?
Within the Explorer tab in the web app, users can find and search the complete list of known entities within the Crystal solution.
How does Crystal’s risk scoring process work?
In Crystal’s default setup, entities that perform illegal activities, or exchanges with lower KYC barriers, would have a high-risk score. On the other hand, KYC-compliant businesses and known mining pools have low-risk scores, and each of those entity risk scores also affects other entities that interact with these known low or high-risk entities, up to 100,000 hops.
Also, there are two types of risk labels on the platform:
- Supplied by an expert: for known entities
- Calculated by the algorithm: for addresses whose owner is unknown
The first set of labels is assigned based on manual expert analysis of publicly available information (e.g., business type or compliance with KYC/AML rules). Those labels can be later configured.
The second set of labels is determined by the algorithm based on a risk score profile set up by the user.
Can users customize the risk scoring of entitles according to requirements?
The user can fully customize risk score types and adjust them according to the customer’s needs.
What editions of Crystal are available?
There are two ways of using the Crystal Blockchain solution:
- Crystal Expert: is accessed through the web application, runs on Crystal servers, and is located in a data center in the EU.
- Crystal API: is accessed through the REST API. The application runs on Crystal servers and is located in a data center in the EU.
A more detailed comparison of Crystal’s analytics solutions can be found here.
How can users reach the support team if there are any issues with the trial license or API key?
If your trial license has expired, please contact [email protected] to extend your license, otherwise please contact the team at [email protected].