Alterya founders Elad Fouks (CEO) and Shahaf Gonen (CTO).

Blockchain giant Chainalysis acquires Israeli startup Alterya in $150M deal

This marks Chainalysis' second acquisition of an Israeli company in just one month, following the purchase of Hexagate. Alterya specializes in preventing authorised-push-payment (APP) fraud, focusing on cryptocurrency and real-time payment networks.

Blockchain giant Chainalysis has acquired the Israeli company Alterya, marking its second acquisition in Israel, following last month's purchase of Hexagate. Chainalysis, which specializes in blockchain analytics, operational intelligence, and data access, employs more than 700 people worldwide, with clients including financial institutions, governments, and law enforcement agencies. While the companies have not disclosed the purchase price, it is estimated at around $150 million.
Alterya was founded in 2022 by Elad Fouks (CEO) and Shahaf Gonen (CTO). Elad Fouks previously served in elite technological and operational units in the IDF’s intelligence corps, and Shahaf Gonen is a graduate of the Talpiot program, Unit 8200, and a former Google employee. Upon its founding, the company raised $9.8 million in Seed funding led by Battery Ventures, with participation from NFX, Nyca, and the startup accelerator Y Combinator. All 28 employees of the company will continue working after the acquisition, and Alterya will operate as an independent product line and a local R&D center.
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מייסדי אלתריה - סמנכ"ל הטכנולוגיות שחף גונן והמנכ"ל אלעד פוקס
מייסדי אלתריה - סמנכ"ל הטכנולוגיות שחף גונן והמנכ"ל אלעד פוקס
Alterya founders Elad Fouks (CEO) and Shahaf Gonen (CTO).
(Photo: Oron Kaplan)
Alterya specializes in preventing authorised-push-payment (APP) fraud, focusing on cryptocurrency and real-time payment networks. The company’s primary focus is early detection of social engineering scams, which in recent months have increasingly used AI to create synthetic identities and content designed to deceive end users. Alterya has experienced rapid growth since launching its product about a year and a half ago, serving some of the world's largest financial institutions, including Coinbase, Square, and Binance, as well as leading U.S. banks. Through these partnerships, Alterya protects hundreds of millions of end customers globally. The company has developed a solution that integrates cybersecurity and AI capabilities for large-scale, cross-network detection, enabling real-time scam prevention for its customers, even before attackers reach their targets. Throughout 2024, Alterya, which had previously operated under the radar, identified over $10 billion worth of crypto transactions sent to scammers and helped its clients protect assets with a total value exceeding $100 million.
In an interview with Calcalist, Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, said: “We’ve been operating here longer than people realize. We’ve had a team here for almost three years serving our clients, and for some time, I wanted to build a development center in Israel to tap into the talented workforce and expand our product line. I’m very excited about our two acquisitions here, the previous Hexagate deal and today’s acquisition of Alterya. We’ll be building another development center, as there are talented people here who can develop new technologies and help us improve.”
Levin also discussed the impact of the changing regulatory landscape under the potential future Trump administration, which he believes will benefit the crypto industry: “You can feel that the wind has shifted for the industry. It's good that the wind is at your back, not in your face. Many companies are eager to enter the crypto space, and the administration change is definitely in our favor—it’s very pro-crypto. As the market grows, the risk of fraud and capital loss increases. I realized that we need to be strong not just in investigations but also in preventing capital loss, which is why we acquired these two companies that are leading the way in tackling fraud and security breaches.”
Elad Fouks, CEO of Alterya, said: “Scams have become the biggest problem for financial services worldwide, while struggling to adopt alternative payment infrastructures due to the associated risks, particularly authorized fraud (scams). This problem has intensified over the past year with the widespread use of AI to create fake and synthetic digital identities and highly reliable fake content at scale and low cost, enabling fraudsters to deceive end users and bypass standard verification processes and fraud detection tools. Alterya has developed a solution that introduces a new paradigm in scam detection, leveraging AI and proprietary cybersecurity tools for large-scale, early detection to safeguard individuals and payment services.”