Before any analysis
Scoping the mandate
Seed addresses, transaction hashes, timeframes and the legal basis for the work. We agree what a successful outcome looks like while it can still be shaped.
Blockchain forensics that stands up in court.
NuruTrace Labs is a Kenyan blockchain intelligence and financial crime analytics company. We trace stolen and laundered digital assets across Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tron, turn on-chain activity into evidence investigators can use, and prepare institutions for the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act.
- Discipline
- Crypto tracing and AML analytics
- We work with
- Police, prosecutors, VASPs, banks, counsel
- Regime
- VASP Act 2025 and Regulations 2026
- Based in
- Nairobi, Kenya. Working globally.
Why we exist
Kenya regulated virtual assets. Almost nobody here can investigate them.
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act brought exchanges, custodians and brokers under formal supervision. Registration, though, is only the visible half of the problem. The harder half is capability: being able to look at a wallet, a chain of hops and a cluster of counterparties, and say with defensible reasoning what happened and who benefited.
That capability is scarce across East Africa. NuruTrace exists to build it, inside police units, compliance teams, law faculties and our own casework. Nuru is Swahili for light. Our job is bringing it to places where value has been deliberately hidden.
What we do
Seven service lines, one discipline
Crypto investigations, VASP and bank compliance, and blockchain training for the legal and academic sector. Each line stands on its own, and each feeds the others. Casework sharpens the teaching. Teaching builds the market that commissions the casework.
01Law enforcement supportPolice · DCI · Prosecutors · Asset recoveryInvestigative support on cryptocurrency cases. We trace seed addresses through hops and bridges, identify off-ramps, and produce analysis built to survive scrutiny in court. Includes training and standing technical support for units building their own capability.02VASP complianceExchanges · Custodians · Brokers · Token platformsCompliance consulting for virtual asset service providers under the VASP Act and its regulations. Licensing readiness, AML and CFT programme design, KYC and transaction monitoring frameworks, and preparation for supervisory engagement.03Bank and institution complianceBanks · SACCOs · Microfinance · Payment providersBlockchain compliance for financial institutions with virtual asset exposure, whether direct or through their customers. Counterparty risk assessment, exposure screening, policy drafting and analyst training for existing financial crime teams.04Private investigationsCorporates · Law firms · Insolvency practitioners · IndividualsCrypto asset tracing and forensic analysis for private clients. Fraud, misappropriation, disputed transfers and asset location in commercial and matrimonial matters, delivered with a defined scope and a written report.05Legal educationAdvocates · Judiciary · Law faculties · In-house counselCrypto and blockchain education for the legal profession. How digital assets actually work, what on-chain evidence is and is not, how it should be handled and challenged, and where the VASP regime creates obligations for clients.06Research and academiaUniversities · Research institutions · Policy bodiesBlockchain education and research partnership with universities. Curriculum contribution, guest instruction, supervision of applied research, and collaboration on regional financial crime typologies.07Blockchain technology solutionsPublic sector · Enterprise · Development partnersApplied distributed ledger work beyond financial crime. Provenance and supply chain traceability, health sector record integrity, and smart city data applications, delivered in partnership with institutions building long term systems.
Method
How a crypto tracing engagement works
A tracing engagement is a chain of custody as much as a chain of transactions. Each part of the work produces the material the next part depends on.
The core of the work
Following the value
Across hops, bridges and chains. We attribute wallet clusters to services where the evidence supports it, and we record clearly where it does not.
Checking ourselves
Corroboration
Pattern analysis against known typologies, corroboration with off-chain material, and an honest statement of what we are confident about and what we are not.
What you receive
The report, and after
Written to survive scrutiny, with methodology documented and assumptions declared, plus the follow-on support counsel or investigators need to use it.
We report what the chain supports, and nothing beyond it.
Attribution has limits. Where the evidence lets us name a cluster, we name it. Where it supports only a probability, we say so plainly. A report that overstates its own certainty is worse than no report at all, because it fails at exactly the moment it matters most.
Coverage
The blockchains we trace
Illicit flows in East Africa do not look like the global picture. Stablecoin transfers on low-fee chains dominate, and mobile money off-ramps sit at the edge of nearly every case we see.
Bitcoin
UTXO clustering, peel chains, mixer and coinjoin exposure
BTC
Ethereum
ERC-20 tokens, DEX routing, bridge hops, contract interactions
ETH · ERC-20
Tron
TRC-20 stablecoins, the dominant regional transfer rail
TRX · TRC-20
BNB Chain
BEP-20 tokens, peer to peer settlement patterns
BNB · BEP-20
Off-ramp analysis
P2P desks, mobile money interfaces, exchange withdrawal patterns
FIAT EDGE
Engagement
Three ways to work with us
Monthly retainer
RecurringOngoing compliance support, advisory and monitoring for a fixed monthly fee, with agreed response times.
- Continuous transaction monitoring support
- A named analyst and a clear escalation path
- Regulatory change briefings
- Priority access when something is urgent
Best for: VASPs, banks and institutions carrying continuous obligations.
Project fee
Defined scopeA single investigation, audit or compliance review, scoped and priced before any work starts.
- Asset tracing and recovery support
- AML and CFT programme review
- Licensing readiness assessment
- A written report with defined deliverables
Best for: private investigations and one-off law enforcement engagements.
Training programme
Per cohortA fixed fee per programme, delivered to a law firm, police unit, university faculty or bank.
- Curriculum built for the specific audience
- Hands-on tracing exercises, not slides
- Materials retained by the institution
- Certificate of completion
Best for: police units, legal education and academic institutions.
Insights
Crypto crime and compliance in Kenya
Analysis of the Kenyan virtual asset regime, tracing methodology, and the laundering typologies we meet in regional casework.
The 4 November licensing deadline: what it actually requiresThe transitional window under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act closes on 4 November 2026. After that date, operating without a licence is a criminal offence. Here is what the regime asks of you, and what we see businesses getting wrong.Read Reading a peel chain, and why it defeats most peoplePeel chains beat investigators through patience rather than sophistication, which is precisely why they survive contact with a spreadsheet. Here is the structure, why manual tracing fails on it, and the signatures that give it away.Read Why TRC-20 stablecoins dominate illicit flows in East AfricaGlobal blockchain crime reporting is written from a largely Western dataset, and it consistently under-weights the rail that matters most in this region. If your monitoring was designed around Bitcoin and Ethereum, you have a blind spot.Read
Get in touch
Bring us a matter, a mandate, or a question.
Investigators, compliance officers, counsel and academic partners are all welcome. First conversations are confidential and carry no obligation.