Merkle Science provides blockchain intelligence through advanced transaction monitoring and wallet risk scoring capabilities. It helps crypto businesses, financial institutions, and government entities detect, investigate, and prevent illegal activities involving cryptocurrencies.

Its key capabilities include:

• Behavioral rule engine. It goes beyond static blacklists to proactively detect suspicious wallet addresses using behavioral pattern analysis, even before they are tagged on public databases.
• Real-time transaction monitoring — continuous monitoring with instant alerts when risk levels change, enabling immediate compliance response.
• Comprehensive coverage — support for multiple blockchain networks with sanctions attribution for high-risk entities.

How Merkle Science works

Sumsub offers the bring-your-own-key (BYOK) option for those who want to use our integrated services with their existing Merkle Science accounts.

The BYOK option lets you submit your own API key to Sumsub to access Merkle Science analytics directly in your existing compliance workflow.

Otherwise, you can leverage the native integration managed by Sumsub.

The integration enables real-time risk screening for cryptocurrency activity using a wallet address or a wallet address combined with a transaction hash. When a crypto transaction is initiated, Sumsub does the following:

1. Extracts the wallet address (and the transaction hash, if available).
2. Screens the wallet and/or transaction via Merkle Science's intelligence data.
3. Generates a comprehensive risk report.

Merkle Science's powerful analytics provide you with a number of benefits, allowing you to immediately act on suspicious behavior. These benefits include:

• Identification of illicit activity by analyzing fund sources and wallet behavior.
• Detection of exposure to sanctioned transactions, darknet activity, and other high-risk sources.
• Enhanced transaction risk screening when a transaction hash is provided, including exposure analysis and risk indicators tied to the transaction flow.
• Evaluation of both hosted and unhosted wallets before approving transactions.
• Enhanced transparency for tracing and identifying fund transfers between VASPs.

Supported blockchains

Crypto Monitoring with Merkle Science screens transactions and counterparty wallets across the blockchains listed below. Scroll down the table to see the full list.

Coverage differs from network to network, so before you rely on a specific chain, check whether token screening is available for it.

Get started with Merkle Science

The following is a sequence of steps to be taken to enable Merkle Science crypto monitoring.

Step 1: Get access

Crypto Monitoring with Merkle Science can be enabled through your Customer Success Manager. Contact your Customer Success Manager at [email protected] to request access.

To use your own API key, you will need the following prerequisites:

• A valid Merkle Science subscription.

• Access to the Merkle Science dashboard.

When these requirements are met:

1. Log into the Merkle Science Dashboard and copy the API key.
2. In the Sumsub Dashboard, navigate to the Marketplace page and find the Merkle Science solution.
3. Click Settings and paste and validate your API key.

Step 2: Install rules

Once you have Merkle Science enabled for your account, you can install the pre-configured rule bundles from the Sumsub Dashboard:

1. Navigate to the Rules Library.
2. Install the Crypto Monitoring: Merkle Science rule bundle. We recommend installing all rules in the bundle for comprehensive coverage. For more instructions on how to manage rules, see this article.
3. Review and customize rule parameters based on your risk appetite and regulatory requirements.

Step 3: Create custom rules

Optionally, you can create custom rules tailored to your specific business needs and risk policies. Custom rules allow you to set up risk thresholds and use specific signals provided by Merkle Science. For more information on how to create and set up custom rules, see this article.