Overview

Elliptic is a blockchain analytics and cryptoasset compliance company founded in 2013 in London, United Kingdom. As one of the earliest entrants in the blockchain analytics space, Elliptic pioneered the application of data science and machine learning to blockchain transaction analysis for financial crime detection and regulatory compliance. The platform now provides coverage across more than 100 blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and all major decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystems.

Elliptic's core technology comprises two primary products. Elliptic Lens provides real-time wallet and transaction screening with automated risk score generation, enabling regulated entities to screen incoming and outgoing transactions against known risk indicators. Elliptic Navigator is an investigative tool that enables compliance analysts and law enforcement to visually trace fund flows across blockchains, through mixing services, across cross-chain bridges, and through decentralized exchange protocols. The visual graph interface allows investigators to follow complex transaction chains that would be impossible to trace manually.

Elliptic's most significant technical innovation is its Holistic Screening technology. Traditional blockchain screening evaluates only direct counterparty risk -- whether the immediate sender or receiver of funds is associated with a known entity. Holistic Screening extends this analysis to evaluate the complete fund flow history, assessing risk from funds that have passed through multiple intermediaries before reaching the screened address. This multi-hop analysis provides a more complete picture of exposure to illicit activity, capturing indirect connections to darknet markets, ransomware operations, and sanctioned entities that would be invisible to direct-counterparty screening alone.

For the Prismatic Platform, Elliptic serves as a complementary cryptocurrency compliance source alongside Chainalysis, providing independent risk assessments and cross-validation. The dual-provider approach is considered best practice in cryptocurrency compliance, as different analytics firms maintain different attribution databases, use different risk methodologies, and may have different coverage for specific blockchains or entity types. When an address is flagged by both providers, the confidence in the risk assessment increases substantially.

Data Sources and Coverage

Elliptic builds its intelligence from multiple data categories, combining on-chain blockchain data with off-chain intelligence from regulatory actions, law enforcement investigations, and open-source research.

Data Category	Description	Scale
Blockchain Data	Raw transaction data from 100+ blockchains	Billions of transactions
Entity Attributions	Known entity labels (exchanges, darknet, ransomware)	Millions of attributed addresses
Risk Scores	Automated risk rating for addresses (0-10 scale)	Real-time scoring
Sanctions Data	OFAC, EU, UN sanctions list screening for crypto addresses	Updated within hours of list changes
DeFi Protocol Data	Smart contract interaction analysis across DeFi protocols	Hundreds of protocols
Cross-Chain Intelligence	Fund flow tracking across bridge transactions	All major bridges
Source of Funds	Historical analysis of fund origin categories	Configurable depth (1-20 hops)
Destination of Funds	Forward-looking analysis of where funds flow	Configurable depth

Holistic Screening Model

Traditional Screening: Direct counterparty only
    Address A --> Address B (screened) --> Address C
                      ^
                      |
                  Screen HERE only

Elliptic Holistic Screening: Full fund flow analysis
    Address A --> Address B --> Address C --> ... --> Address N
        ^            ^            ^                      ^
        |            |            |                      |
    All intermediaries screened for risk exposure

Blockchain Coverage

Blockchain Category	Examples	Coverage
Layer 1	Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche	Full transaction indexing
Layer 2	Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync	Full transaction indexing
Stablecoins	USDT, USDC, DAI, BUSD	Token-level tracking
DeFi Protocols	Uniswap, Aave, Compound, Curve	Smart contract analysis
NFT Platforms	OpenSea, Blur, LooksRare	NFT transfer tracking
Privacy Coins	Zcash (transparent), Monero (limited)	Varies by protocol

Technical Architecture

Elliptic's platform operates as a cloud-hosted SaaS solution with API access for programmatic integration.

API Structure

Endpoint Category	Purpose	Method
Wallet Screening	Screen cryptocurrency addresses for risk	POST
Transaction Screening	Screen individual transactions	POST
Source of Funds	Analyze fund origin for an address	POST
Destination of Funds	Analyze where funds flow from an address	POST
Batch Screening	Screen multiple addresses/transactions	POST
Sanctions Check	Direct sanctions list matching	POST

Data Flow

Blockchain Nodes (100+ chains)
    |
    v
Elliptic Data Pipeline
    +-- Transaction Ingestion and Indexing
    +-- Entity Attribution Engine
    +-- Risk Scoring ML Models
    +-- Sanctions List Matching
    +-- Cross-Chain Bridge Tracking
    |
    v
Elliptic API
    +-- Lens (real-time screening)
    +-- Navigator (visual investigation)
    +-- Discovery (proactive monitoring)
    |
    v
Prismatic Platform Integration

API Integration

defmodule PrismaticOsint.Adapters.Elliptic do
  @moduledoc """
  Elliptic blockchain analytics adapter for cryptocurrency compliance
  screening, risk scoring, and fund flow analysis. Provides independent
  risk assessment complementing Chainalysis for dual-provider compliance.
  """

  @behaviour PrismaticOsint.Adapter

  @doc """
  Screen a cryptocurrency wallet address for risk.
  """
  def screen_wallet(address, opts \\ []) do
    asset = Keyword.get(opts, :asset, detect_asset(address))
    case api_post("/v2/wallet/screening", %{
      address: address,
      asset: asset,
      screening_type: "holistic"
    }) do
      {:ok, response} ->
        {:ok, %{
          address: address,
          risk_score: response["risk_score"],
          risk_level: classify_risk(response["risk_score"]),
          entity: response["entity"],
          categories: parse_categories(response["categories"]),
          sanctions_match: response["sanctions_match"],
          screening_type: :holistic
        }}

      {:error, reason} ->
        {:error, reason}
    end
  end

  @doc """
  Screen an individual transaction.
  """
  def screen_transaction(opts) do
    params = %{
      hash: Keyword.fetch!(opts, :hash),
      asset: Keyword.fetch!(opts, :asset),
      output_address: Keyword.get(opts, :output_address)
    }
    api_post("/v2/transaction/screening", params)
  end

  @doc """
  Analyze source of funds for an address.
  """
  def source_of_funds(address, opts \\ []) do
    depth = Keyword.get(opts, :depth, 10)
    min_pct = Keyword.get(opts, :min_percentage, 1.0)
    case api_post("/v2/wallet/source-of-funds", %{
      address: address,
      depth: depth,
      min_percentage: min_pct
    }) do
      {:ok, response} ->
        {:ok, %{
          address: address,
          sources: parse_fund_sources(response["sources"]),
          analysis_depth: depth
        }}

      {:error, reason} ->
        {:error, reason}
    end
  end

  @doc """
  Trace fund flows across multiple blockchains.
  """
  def trace_cross_chain(address, opts \\ []) do
    chains = Keyword.get(opts, :chains, [:ethereum, :polygon, :arbitrum])
    api_post("/v2/wallet/cross-chain", %{address: address, chains: chains})
  end

  @doc """
  Batch screen multiple addresses.
  """
  def screen_batch(addresses) do
    api_post("/v2/wallet/batch-screening", %{addresses: addresses})
  end

  defp classify_risk(score) when score >= 7.0, do: :high
  defp classify_risk(score) when score >= 4.0, do: :medium
  defp classify_risk(_score), do: :low
end

Dual-Provider Compliance Pipeline

defmodule PrismaticCompliance.Crypto.DualProviderScreener do
  @moduledoc """
  Cross-validates cryptocurrency risk assessments using both
  Chainalysis and Elliptic for maximum compliance confidence.
  """

  def comprehensive_screen(address, asset) do
    tasks = [
      Task.async(fn -> Chainalysis.screen_address(address) end),
      Task.async(fn -> Elliptic.screen_wallet(address) end),
      Task.async(fn -> Ofac.check_crypto_address(address) end)
    ]

    [chainalysis, elliptic, ofac] = Task.await_many(tasks, 30_000)

    {:ok, %{
      address: address,
      asset: asset,
      chainalysis: extract_ok(chainalysis),
      elliptic: extract_ok(elliptic),
      ofac: extract_ok(ofac),
      consensus_risk: determine_consensus_risk(chainalysis, elliptic),
      disagreements: find_disagreements(chainalysis, elliptic),
      action: determine_action(chainalysis, elliptic, ofac),
      screened_at: DateTime.utc_now()
    }}
  end

  defp determine_consensus_risk(chainalysis, elliptic) do
    c_risk = extract_risk_level(chainalysis)
    e_risk = extract_risk_level(elliptic)

    case {c_risk, e_risk} do
      {:high, :high} -> :high_consensus
      {:high, _} -> :high_single_provider
      {_, :high} -> :high_single_provider
      {:medium, :medium} -> :medium_consensus
      _ -> :low
    end
  end
end

Use Cases

Cryptocurrency Compliance for Financial Institutions

Regulated entities including cryptocurrency exchanges, payment processors, and banks with cryptocurrency exposure use Elliptic for real-time transaction screening to meet AML/CFT regulatory requirements. Holistic Screening provides deeper risk visibility than direct counterparty analysis, identifying indirect exposure to illicit sources that traditional screening would miss.

DeFi Risk Management

As decentralized finance protocols handle billions in daily volume, compliance teams need to assess the risk of DeFi interactions. Elliptic analyzes smart contract interactions to determine whether funds flowing through DeFi protocols originate from or are destined for high-risk entities. This includes screening liquidity pool deposits, decentralized exchange swaps, and lending protocol interactions.

NFT Compliance and Provenance

The NFT market presents unique compliance challenges including wash trading, money laundering through high-value NFT transactions, and sanctions evasion. Elliptic provides NFT transaction screening, provenance tracing, and detection of wash trading patterns that may indicate market manipulation or illicit fund flows.

Cross-Chain Investigation

Criminal actors frequently use cross-chain bridges to move funds between blockchains in an attempt to obscure transaction trails. Elliptic's cross-chain analytics capability tracks fund flows across bridge transactions, maintaining continuity of analysis even when assets move between distinct blockchain networks.

Data Quality and Reliability

Quality Dimension	Assessment	Notes
Attribution Accuracy	High	Verified entity labels from law enforcement and research
Blockchain Coverage	Excellent	100+ blockchains with full transaction indexing
Risk Score Consistency	High	ML models with continuous retraining
Sanctions Timeliness	Hours	Updated within hours of regulatory list changes
False Positive Rate	Low-Moderate	Holistic screening may flag indirect exposure
Cross-Chain Accuracy	Good	Major bridges covered; newer bridges may have gaps

Platform Integration

Within the Prismatic Platform, Elliptic provides independent cryptocurrency risk assessment as part of the dual-provider compliance architecture. Elliptic results are automatically correlated with Chainalysis assessments, with disagreements flagged for manual review. Combined risk scores feed into Prismatic Perimeter security ratings for entities with cryptocurrency exposure.

NABLA Compliance

NABLA Axiom	Compliance	Implementation
Signal Plurality	Compliant	Elliptic is one of two blockchain analytics providers (with Chainalysis)
Contradiction Preservation	Compliant	Disagreements between Elliptic and Chainalysis explicitly preserved
Absence Informative	Compliant	Addresses unknown to Elliptic tracked as data gaps
Time Decay	Compliant	All screenings timestamped; risk scores versioned
Unknown Valid	Compliant	Unattributed addresses reported as unknown, not clean
Source Independence	Compliant	Independent from Chainalysis with separate attribution database
Provenance Mandatory	Compliant	Full screening provenance including model version and data date

Performance Metrics

Metric	Value	Notes
Screening Latency	<1 second	Real-time API response for single address
Batch Throughput	1,000+ addresses/min	Bulk screening capability
Blockchain Coverage	100+ chains	All major L1 and L2 networks
Entity Database	Millions of labeled addresses	Continuously updated
Sanctions Update	<24 hours	After regulatory list publication
Cross-Chain Bridges	All major bridges	Wormhole, Multichain, Stargate, etc.
API Availability	99.9%+	Enterprise SLA

Chainalysis - Enterprise blockchain analytics (cross-validation partner)
Crystal Blockchain - Blockchain analytics and visualization
Blockchain.com - Bitcoin blockchain raw data explorer
Etherscan - Ethereum blockchain explorer and analytics
OFAC - US sanctions including cryptocurrency addresses
EU Sanctions - European sanctions compliance

Connect & Contribute

Created by Tomáš Korcak (korczis) | Open Source under GHL

GitHub | GitLab | LinkedIn | Contact
Developer Portal | Architecture | Meet the Creator

Elliptic

Capabilities

Try Elliptic

Overview

Data Sources and Coverage

Holistic Screening Model

Blockchain Coverage

Technical Architecture

API Structure

Data Flow

API Integration

Dual-Provider Compliance Pipeline

Use Cases

Cryptocurrency Compliance for Financial Institutions

DeFi Risk Management

NFT Compliance and Provenance

Cross-Chain Investigation

Data Quality and Reliability

Platform Integration

NABLA Compliance

Performance Metrics

Connect & Contribute

Intelligence Network

Related Content

Agent Ecosystem

Applications

Doctrine

Elliptic

Capabilities

Try Elliptic

Overview

Data Sources and Coverage

Holistic Screening Model

Blockchain Coverage

Technical Architecture

API Structure

Data Flow

API Integration

Dual-Provider Compliance Pipeline

Use Cases

Cryptocurrency Compliance for Financial Institutions

DeFi Risk Management

NFT Compliance and Provenance

Cross-Chain Investigation

Data Quality and Reliability

Platform Integration

NABLA Compliance

Performance Metrics

Related Resources

Connect & Contribute

Intelligence Network

Related Content

Agent Ecosystem

Applications

Doctrine