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AMLBot

From Alfawiki

AMLBot is a company specializing in blockchain analytics and regulatory compliance for the cryptocurrency industry. It was founded in 2019.[1] AMLBot builds software that helps crypto businesses meet anti-money-laundering (AML) requirements, including wallet risk screening, real-time transaction monitoring, and identity verification. It pairs this technology with a professional investigations team that follows stolen digital assets across blockchains and works to return them to their owners.[2]

History

Beginnings

AMLBot started as a Telegram chatbot. Anyone could send it a crypto wallet address and get back a risk score indicating whether the funds were connected to scams, sanctioned parties, or other illicit sources.[3] The idea came from co-founder Viacheslav (Slava) Demchuk, who has led the company as CEO since its launch.[4]

Growth

As crypto exchanges and payment firms began asking for enterprise-grade tools, AMLBot grew from a single bot into a full compliance platform. New additions included an API for automated checks, a know-your-transaction (KYT) monitoring service, KYC/KYB verification for customers, and an in-house team of blockchain investigators. The business operates through Safelement Limited in Hong Kong and Safe3 UAB in Lithuania.[5]LetsExchange. Retrieved 23 September 2026. In July 2023, the European Blockchain Association admitted AMLBot as a member, describing it as an anti-money-laundering expert.[1]

LazarusBounty

In 2025, AMLBot became one of the investigators in LazarusBounty, a program created by the crypto exchange Bybit to track and freeze funds stolen in hacks linked to state-sponsored attackers. The company is listed on the program's public bounty-hunter leaderboard.[6]

AI Tracer

In July 2026, AMLBot introduced AI Tracer, an AI-assisted tool that lets anyone start a blockchain investigation on their own. The user enters a transaction hash, and the tool maps where the money went across wallets, bridges, and chains, tagging recognized entities such as exchanges and flagged addresses along the way. AMLBot positions the reports as a first step. They do not freeze funds and do not guarantee recovery.[7]

Products and services

  • Crypto Checker: AMLBot's core screening product. It evaluates wallets and transactions for links to fraud, sanctions, mixers, and darknet activity, and is available through Telegram, the web, and an API.[8]
  • KYT monitoring: continuous risk checks on incoming and outgoing transfers for exchanges, custodians, and payment providers.
  • KYC/KYB: verification of individual users and corporate clients.
  • Tracer and AI Tracer: tools that show the movement of funds across networks in visual form.
  • Asset recovery: a service in which AMLBot investigators trace stolen crypto, prepare evidence, and work with exchanges and police to freeze the funds.[9]

Notable investigations

AMLBot's investigators have worked on a wide range of theft and fraud cases, many of which have been covered by the media.

In October 2024, Decrypt reported on a "proximity breach" in which a former crypto executive lost US$450,000 after someone he knew gained access to his device through Wi-Fi. AMLBot tracked the funds to an exchange account, where they were frozen.[10] In April 2025, Decrypt used AMLBot's findings to explain an address-poisoning scam that took around US$700,000 in stablecoins from a single victim.[11]

In Thailand, Thairath reported in August 2025 that AMLBot helped the gaming bot Blink Game AI get back 4.3 million baht (about US$120,000) in under 48 hours.[12] In Bulgaria, AMLBot and the crypto platform Altcoins.bg handled what the partner called the first successful return of funds after crypto fraud in the country.[13]

Web3 projects have also called on AMLBot after security incidents. Both the trading bot Banana Gun[14] and the lending protocol Shoebill Finance[15] publicly named the company as part of their investigations.

AMLBot documents selected cases on its blog. These include recovering US$150,000 taken from a Ledger hardware wallet with the help of open-source intelligence,[16] and stopping a scheme in which a fake Zoom call nearly cost a company hundreds of thousands of dollars in ETH.[17]

Research

Alongside its casework, AMLBot produces research on crypto crime and stablecoin regulation that is widely picked up by industry media.

Crypto crime report

AMLBot's 2025 crypto crime report analyzed around 2,500 of the company's own investigations.[18] Its central finding was that roughly 65% of incidents came from social engineering, such as hijacked devices and weak verification, rather than from technical flaws in blockchains or smart contracts. The company pointed out that the numbers reflect its own cases, not the whole market.[19]

Stablecoin freezing

AMLBot studied how Tether and Circle, the two largest stablecoin issuers, froze addresses from 2023 to 2025, and published a public data dashboard alongside the study.[20] News coverage focused on the contrast between Tether's 7,268 blacklisted wallets and Circle's 372.[21] Bloomberg Law later cited the study in commentary on stablecoin supervision under the GENIUS Act.[22]

The company also looked at how quickly Tether blacklists USDT addresses. It found that lags in the process let about US$78 million move before the freezes took hold. Cointelegraph[23] and Decrypt[24] both reported the findings.

A further AMLBot analysis described Circle's freezing of 16 business hot wallets, one of which belonged to a blockchain bridge smart contract.[25] Circle's approach to freezing later drew wider debate in the industry after the Drift hack.[26]

Privacy tools

AMLBot has tracked stablecoins moving through crypto privacy tools, identifying about US$4.2 billion in exposure broken down by protocol, asset, and risk level.[27] The research was covered by Cointelegraph Brasil.[28]

Media commentary

AMLBot and its CEO regularly serve as expert voices in crypto journalism. They have commented on Tether's US$182 million USDT freeze,[29] the shutdown of the analytics service Antinalysis under pressure from state agencies,[30] silent hijacking risks for TRON addresses,[31] a potential 51% attack on Monero tied to the Qubic protocol,[32] crypto romance scams,[33] and monthly hack losses across the industry.[34]

Work with law enforcement

AMLBot assists police and government bodies with blockchain tracing and investigator training. In Kazakhstan, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the anti-fraud project Stop-Piramida.kz.[35][36] In August 2024, the Bangkok Post reported that Thai police were partnering with AMLBot to trace and recover money stolen by transnational scam groups and to train officers in crypto investigations.[37] AMLBot has also received a letter of appreciation from the Gujarat Police in India.

Partners

Beyond the European Blockchain Association and Bybit's LazarusBounty, AMLBot partners with several crypto platforms. The exchange LetsExchange relies on AMLBot to confirm that funds passing through it are legitimate.</ref>LetsExchange. Retrieved 23 September 2026.</ref> The company also works with the exchange service Obmify and the Bulgarian platform Altcoins.bg on fraud tracing and asset recovery. For its own security, AMLBot runs an open bug bounty program on HackenProof, where independent researchers can test its web products.[38]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "EBA welcomes anti-money laundering expert AMLBot as new member". European Blockchain Association. 12 July 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  2. ↑ "Obmify and AMLBot: a new partnership for safe cryptocurrency exchange". Obmify. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  3. ↑ "How crypto AML and crypto compliance work". Trustee. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  4. ↑ "Meet Slava Demchuk, AMLBot". TechRound. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  5. ↑ "AMLBot". AMLBot (official website). Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  6. ↑ "LazarusBounty – Bounty Hunters". Bybit. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  7. ↑ "Crypto forensics firm launches AI tracing service to track your stolen coins". Cointelegraph. July 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  8. ↑ "Crypto Checker". AMLBot. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  9. ↑ "How AML Bot and Altcoins.bg join forces against crypto fraud". Altcoins.bg. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  10. ↑ "Crypto CEO loses $450K in WiFi proximity breach". Decrypt. October 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  11. ↑ "Crypto user loses $700,000 to address poisoning scam: here's what happened". Decrypt. April 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  12. ↑ "Blink Game AI case". Thairath. August 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  13. ↑ "The first successful case in Bulgaria with funds returned after crypto fraud". Altcoins.bg. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  14. ↑ "Banana Gun statement on investigation". Banana Gun (via X). Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  15. ↑ "Shoebill Finance statement on investigation". Shoebill Finance (via X). Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  16. ↑ "How AMLBot helped recover $150K stolen from a Ledger using OSINT". AMLBot Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  17. ↑ "A fake Zoom call nearly cost this company hundreds of thousands in ETH". AMLBot Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  18. ↑ "Crypto Crime Report 2025–2026: insights from 2,500 real investigations". AMLBot Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  19. ↑ "AMLBot: 2025 crypto incidents driven by social engineering, phishing, impersonation". Cointelegraph. February 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  20. ↑ "Stablecoin freezes 2023–2025: a data-backed analysis of USDT vs USDC by AMLBot". AMLBot Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  21. ↑ "Report: Tether blacklists 7,268 wallets vs Circle's 372". CryptoPotato. December 2025. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  22. ↑ "Stablecoin Oversight Poses Challenges as Digital Currency Grows". Bloomberg Law. March 2026. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  23. ↑ "Tether blacklist delay allowed $78 million USDT to move". Cointelegraph. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  24. ↑ "$78M lost to laundering loophole in Tether USDT freezing". Decrypt. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  25. ↑ "Circle froze 16 business hot wallets, including a blockchain bridge smart contract". AMLBot Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  26. ↑ "$285M Drift hack sparks debate over Circle, USDC". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  27. ↑ "Stablecoin flows through crypto privacy tools: $4.2B exposed by protocol, asset and risk profile". AMLBot Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  28. ↑ "July tokenization raising nearly R$8M in Brazil". Cointelegraph Brasil. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  29. ↑ "Tether freezes $182 million USDT". The Block. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  30. ↑ "Antinalysis suspended amid scrutiny from state agencies". The Block. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  31. ↑ "TRON addresses at risk of silent hijacking". Cointelegraph Magazine. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  32. ↑ "Monero 51% attack: why AI protocol Qubic could help privacy chain". Decrypt. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  33. ↑ "Valentine's Day crypto romance scam wallet warning". crypto.news. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  34. ↑ "AMLBot CEO: Security is improving despite over $126M lost in January crypto hacks". crypto.news. February 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  35. ↑ "AMLBot, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kazakhstan and Stop-Piramida.kz sign a memorandum". Incrypted. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  36. ↑ "Partnership". Stop-Piramida.kz. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  37. ↑ "Thai police partner with AMLBot to combat crypto scams". Bangkok Post. August 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2026.
  38. ↑ "AMLBot Web". HackenProof. Retrieved 23 September 2026.

External links

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