Description
Follow an address to see if the outbound transactions cycle back to the same address after some steps. This happens for example either if someone tries to hide traces or if exchange addresses are re-used several times.
Here an example with 2 hops:
14kpaLZJ3s1FjRjZVzWzvYct2Lick56rar –> 1NqhB4beNERKEHvHY1h4Rg4cTEo6hzGb12 –> 14kpaLZJ3s1FjRjZVzWzvYct2Lick56rar
An example with 19 hops:
3ACXf9MERmdJpALEneJ7u6utMLHqpsDufD –> 3JHuQ4FPZx9XtskQYfve9WyRJwFeTtC3Wk –> 1828Kz1WYTfLh5SmaRne1YFKYQ4Znayamv –> 1NDyJtNTjmwk5xPNhjgAMu4HDHigtobu1s –> 33pixy39SLsmau66aWmPG9PWZjxP17hD7v –> bc1qvsjtz6qt0nj3hyyuulvqwkmxyhmv39geglnx83hq825kq0vq99fqna75l7 –> bc1ql9tf5uvq07qj8sqtcqmm4v2fryk6elthe0yav00lla7rt8ahu2lsnx3xmm –> bc1qm2mj374tm3za8djgrm0j70maddfch5jwwjazmud93sk03a9kjvtqksawfq –> bc1q2l8z2j3qjsz7cfaqy0clvdsmu5xcqzdzxhppsdza9pt49madkcwqh53whu –> bc1qeuf8v94ur5hs7feeelxcsvl3nh76c90cyy2u4s6asukrz9nzm2mshe7zet –> bc1qtt98c284y0x96wdzfed8s6n7gfj2n344fq3rf7dv3fa9jg07e4aqww6jz7 –> bc1qu3chmn70cjvyh60ydnfhsu6f4rxwwfwfuumkmv9tp32y3dskz98sp4u6j5 –> bc1q7y7mhg8f77vsyaucv84mn7au04f58kl3all7nuv7xnuej2h42kzskxmqp9 –> bc1qakqgqy8tykjxluu8edclths2uk0qu63yte57wdhtlyww4lckzv4q5wp24g –> bc1quydymm6m5yek84z43ps2q3a85g8upvk4cy7d2uk2slm55lm5xmks3tl6gl –> bc1qpmnvkfy6hc2jsp94qqxzsjjr4w998p2unqmrs7u0dclxw0rfw3rqrdp9na –> bc1qd9cdhaak6r6q0y3nqgrezm3jzynqq36xh7jq7puvqau4utn0ua7qqvrq8x –> bc1qk2xqm0nf4kqvtlzftc3ett3vam8f0fqxqmxh82a8ljgs2mlh5u2s9jjxjw –> bc1qccw4rnmc39zaax0grcgwu5q8n05gjau5wrgtfgmj6atwdhhcrlesshc48r –> 3ACXf9MERmdJpALEneJ7u6utMLHqpsDufD
In combination with the product BTC Address Forensics you can trace through transactions where the standard analytics fail:
Transaction f6af3e5d784151e89377b27a4f3063567f6efda12eb14a3d880e98a45f34a857 has the input address 15Xk184t3fZCYpkL6vpQpC1kJMXjGn5mbr and the two output addresses 14oNn1rZKkV47opqq2VBoXgTBSs9cPSzvp and 17NpH6TviVrTwaNqdFgGC2fQPJYexXbfJs.
Both output addresses are new so we don’t know easily what output address is the change address belonging to the same owner as the input address 15Xk184t3fZCYpkL6vpQpC1kJMXjGn5mbr. But we find from the input address a cycle back to itself via the output address 14oNn1rZKkV47opqq2VBoXgTBSs9cPSzvp. Therefore it’s very likely this address is the change address.
Here the addresses involved in the cycle:
15Xk184t3fZCYpkL6vpQpC1kJMXjGn5mbr → 14oNn1rZKkV47opqq2VBoXgTBSs9cPSzvp → 12LJqB3y6nWS9G64JY8FCBMD47GAteEFHX which is a common input address with → 15Xk184t3fZCYpkL6vpQpC1kJMXjGn5mbr
