Arkham Intelligence Review 2024: What Is It & How To Use It

Arkham Intelligence is an on chain analysis platform that lets you track individuals, entities, addresses on Bitcoin, Ethereum and several other crypto networks.

It‘s usually used by traders and investors who wants to track whales and smart money so it could potentially give an on-chain edge before trading and investing in any crypto coin. But it can also be used by everyday crypto users to keep their addresses under control, receive alerts and automatic, hassle-free stats (and much more).

In this review I will analyze in detail Arkham Intelligence, testing their service and understanding how many things you can with it and assessing if it’s a tool that it’s really useful or not.

Arkham Main Features

The primary objective of Arkham is to "de-anonymize" the blockchain. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are pseudonymous, allowing all transactions to be visible and traceable, yet user identities remain anonymous.

On Arkham, both staff and users can submit bounties or collect information, essentially data about specific entities. These are just a few examples of what's achievable on Arkham Intelligence; let's explore all the key features.

Blockchain Analysis and Deanonymization

Arkham Intelligence's platform systematically analyzes and deanonymizes blockchain transactions, providing insights into the people and companies behind the blockchain activity.

On-Chain Intelligence Marketplace

In July 2023, Arkham launched the first on-chain intelligence marketplace, allowing users to buy and sell intelligence related to specific crypto wallet addresses.

Track Your Portfolio

Arkham shouldn't be necessarily used to get intel about others, but it can be a quite good idea to add some of your addresses of your Bitcoin and other altcoins in order to have a breakdown of your holdings.

Create Labels/Entities

You can create private identities/labels of yourself of our your friends, individuals, companies or whatever you want to and analyze and track them.

How Arkham Intelligence Works

Arkham Intelligence employs artificial intelligence to process, classify, and present on-chain data related to real-world entities associated with blockchain addresses. Through advanced algorithms, the platform extracts meaningful insights from the vast array of blockchain transactions.

Cross-chain Analysis

Arkham seamlessly integrates with multiple blockchain networks, offering users a comprehensive view of on-chain activities. The Ultra feature reconciles cross-chain data, ensuring that users can analyze and attribute information across various blockchain ecosystems.

Profiles

The Profiler, a central component of Arkham, provides users with a real-time overview of entity activities. It consists of four key units: Portfolio, Historical Performance, Counterparties, and Transactions. This user-friendly tool allows individuals to navigate through their on-chain activities efficiently. Additionally, Arkham Filters enable systematic transaction filtering, enhancing the speed and convenience of data analysis.

Intel Exchange

Arkham's Intel Exchange serves as a decentralized marketplace for buying and selling crypto intelligence. Through mechanisms like Bounties and Auctions, users can request and provide intelligence, fostering a collaborative environment. The platform's incentive systems, including ARKM Rewards and ARKM Discounts, encourage user participation, offering benefits for actions beneficial to the Arkham community.

Arkham Intelligence's unique approach not only provides users with powerful analytical tools but also establishes a marketplace for crypto intelligence, creating a symbiotic ecosystem where users contribute and benefit from valuable insights.

Setting Up An Account On Arkham

To begin with, registering on Arkham is completely free. While you can access Arkham's homepage and entity pages without logging in, it is advisable to create an account to unlock all of Arkham's features.

To sign up, visit the Arkham home page, click on the "Platform" button.

Then on the signup button, and provide your email address, display name, and password to request an account.

Following this, check your email for a registration link and use it to verify your Arkham account. Complete the registration by filling the final text field on the registration form and hit the button to complete. You will now be able to login into Arkham.

How To Use The Arkham Intelligence Platform

After successfully creating an account, you can begin exploring the functionalities of Arkham. In this section, I will guide you through my usage of the platform and showcase the several features and activities it offers.

Search For Something/Someone

From the main view of the Arkham Platform, you can try to type the name of somebody you might want to know about.

As soon as you start typing in, you will see many items showing up in the menu. The most important I think are the Arkham Entities. Official Arkham Entities have a blue checkmark and are composed of addresses tagged by their Intel Team.

Upon selecting the entity, you'll be directed to its corresponding profile. For instance, let's take a look at Justin Sun, a prominent figure in the crypto space known for his extensive portfolio. This serves as an insightful starting point to grasp the assets he holds.

Key elements in an entity's profile that deserve attention include:

1. Portfolio (1): This section provides a breakdown of the assets held by the entity along with their corresponding values. For Justin Sun, we observe that his most substantial holding is WSTETH, a wrapped version of stETH.
2. Balances History (2): Offering a comprehensive view, this section illustrates the total value of all crypto holdings over time, measured in fiat currency.
3. Transactions (3): Tracking the wallet's movements, this area allows you to filter and examine both inflows and outflows of funds.
4. Individual (4): Representing one of the labels associated with this Arkham Entity, clicking on it unveils other noteworthy individuals detected by Arkham.
5. Create Alert (5): This feature enables you to set up alerts based on various actions and triggers, allowing for continuous tracking of the selected profile.

Create A Private Label

If you wish to monitor a specific address not listed under Arkham Entities, such as your own address (while maintaining privacy), you have the option to create a private label.

Navigate to the top menu and select "Private Labels." Subsequently, choose "Create New Entity."

Choose the network (Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Tron) and input the desired address. Click the "+" icon to confirm. Additionally, you can assign a name to the entity by selecting "New Entity" and typing your preferred name.

Upon refreshing the page, you'll notice the transaction side on the right gradually populating with incoming and outgoing transactions for the specific address.

Clicking on "View Entity Profile" will take you to a structured view similar to the one analyzed in the previous section.

Set Up An Alert

Suppose you've created some private labels by linking addresses to a label, and now you wish to receive notifications for activities in those addresses. Arkham facilitates this process, and it's straightforward and highly customizable.

While I recommend undertaking this step after setting up private labels for simplicity, you can also perform it beforehand.

Access the "Alerts" option from the main menu at the top. This will lead you to the Alerts Home. From this interface, select "Create alert." Additionally, you have the option to explore preset alerts provided by the Arkham team.

You have the flexibility to customize the alert in various ways; I'll highlight the most common options. For instance, I've configured an alert to monitor transfers on the designated "Bitcoin Pizza" account, specifically tracking transactions from the Arkham Entity associated with "Vitalik Buterin."

This alert is designed to notify me, via email/telegram/slack or any preferred channel, whenever funds are transferred to the selected address. While such a scenario is unlikely, it illustrates the capabilities of Arkham.

Create a Bounty

One of the most controversial features of Arkham Intelligence is the ability to create a bounty, essentially working as an auction for information about the owner of a wallet address on the blockchain through the use of smart contracts.

Navigate to the top menu, choose "Intel Exchange," and then click on the "Create Bounty" button. Follow the prompts to set up your own bounty.

You can now provide a title for your bounty, include an image, and describe the specific information you are seeking. As an example, let's say we set up a hypothetical bounty to gather intelligence on the main Bitcoin address of Max Keiser, often referred to as the High Priest of Bitcoin.

Once you're ready to fund the bounty, click on the green button, connect your Metamask wallet, and specify the bounty amount you are willing to offer for valuable intel. The bounty operates as a smart contract, and the funds will be unlocked to a skilled individual with chain analysis expertise, incentivizing them to collect relevant information and earn the bounty.

The Arkham Utility Token: ARKM

The ARKM token, denoted as $ARKM, stands as the native cryptocurrency of the Arkham Intelligence crypto project. Introduced with the launch of Arkham's Intel Exchange, $ARKM plays a pivotal role in the platform's intel-to-earn economy. This economy incentivizes users to contribute valuable intelligence and insights by offering rewards in the form of ARKM tokens.

At the heart of Arkham's incentive system, $ARKM serves dual purposes – as a reward for positive contributions to the ecosystem and as a means to access discounts on the platform. Users engaging in activities beneficial to Arkham receive ARKM rewards, while holding $ARKM provides discounts of up to 60% on various platform transactions.

$ARKM also holds significance in the governance of the Arkham ecosystem. ARKM holders possess the authority to submit and approve Arkham Improvement Proposals (AIPs). These proposals can influence updates to smart contracts, alterations to exchange fees, and the utilization of ARKM allocated to the Arkham Foundation treasury.

The token was minted on the Ethereum blockchain by the "Arkham: Deployer" on July 5, 2023. It functions as a proxy token, representing another asset while delivering additional functionality.

How To Buy ARKM

As seen before, if you want to create bounties, you need to have two things: Metamask on your browser or app, and ARKM.

One of the best exchanges to buy the utility token of Arkham is Binance. This exchange is the biggest worldwide in terms of trading volume and the ARKM token even debuted on the Binance Launchpad.

To purchase ARKM on Binance, the first step is to create an account. You can do so securely through the following link, which also offers an enticing promotion.

👉 Click here to register on Binance and get a 100 USDT cashback voucher.

After creating your account, navigate to the "Trade" section and choose "Spot Trading." Enter "ARKM" in the search bar to display all available ARKM trading pairs.

Select the desired pair and proceed with the purchase of ARKM. Once the transaction is complete, you can withdraw the funds from Binance to Metamask and utilize them on the Arkham platform.

Is Arkham Intelligence Safe?

There has been a lot of chit-chat about Arkham in the past years. Many affirmed that Arkham is working for the government due to his “Intel-To-Earn” program, where anyone can buy or auction information about the owner of a wallet address on blockchain via smart contracts.

Arkham Intel supporters say the platform bridges the gap between on-chain analysts and various stakeholders, giving access to alpha information and insights from top on-chain researchers.

Additionally, the program incentivizes on-chain investigators who uncover crypto scams and crimes, helping victims identify who defrauded them. Supporters believe that Arkham Intel can improve transparency, reduce fraud activities, and increase trust in the blockchain ecosystem.

Despite its potential benefits, Arkham Intel has faced criticism from prominent figures in the crypto community. Critics argue that the platform overturns the fundamental characteristics of decentralization, potentially compromising privacy and security.

Additionally, revelations that Arkham records users' device IDs, locations, addresses and Twitter profiles have raised concerns about data privacy and the potential for misuse or unauthorized access to personal information.

Personally, I like to use Arkham services. But not just to discover entities holdings, but also for monitoring the public address of blockdyor (which is public, as you can find in the contact section) and giving a breakdown of the addresses I like to make public, but of course I wouldn't dox myself with my other personal or other people's addresses.

Arkham Intel Opinions

Arkham and its marketplace, using the ARKM token to incentivize the gathering of information about address owners, have faced negative publicity. The platform allows users to place bounties on addresses, encouraging skilled individuals with chain analysis expertise to collect relevant information and earn the bounty.

However, a concerning aspect emerges – it becomes an incentivized marketplace for what can be perceived as "cyber stalking." While the documentation claims to disallow physical or personally identifying information, it also indicates the use of such data to "doxx bad actors," implying that personally identifying information may be allowed.

While the intention may be to catch malicious actors, the fine line between targeting wrongdoers and potentially engaging in widespread surveillance raises ethical concerns. The transparency inherent in blockchains, such as Bitcoin, sets the stage for platforms like Arkham to emerge, regardless of their motivations.

Transparency is valuable in certain contexts, such as government spending, but applying it universally to everyone's financial activities raises significant privacy issues. For instance, using a cryptocurrency like Tether from your Aqua Wallet for grocery shopping could expose your financial history, pay schedule, and spending habits to clerks and other employees. The risk of being targeted by bad actors who exploit this information is a notable concern, highlighting the potential downsides of radical transparency.

Arkham Intel Alternatives

When exploring alternatives to Arkham Intelligence, it's essential to consider platforms like Glassnode and Santiment, each offering unique features and catering to specific preferences within the crypto analytics realm.

Glassnode: Glassnode is renowned for its in-depth blockchain analytics, particularly emphasizing Bitcoin and Ethereum. Featuring a user-friendly interface, it caters to both beginners and seasoned users. While excelling in Bitcoin insights, Glassnode's coverage of other cryptocurrencies may be more limited.

Santiment: This platform brings a unique perspective by integrating social media data for sentiment analysis and social trends related to various cryptocurrencies. With customizable alerts and rich data visualization, Santiment is a go-to choice for those interested in the social aspects of the crypto market.

Each platform has its strengths, and the choice depends on individual preferences. Arkham is for those who prioritize extensive deanonymization, Glassnode caters to Bitcoin enthusiasts with comprehensive analytics, and Santiment offers social insights and trend analysis.

Arkham Pros & Cons

Having extensively utilized Arkham Intelligence and conducted thorough research, I find this service exceptionally valuable. Notably, its free access to all features distinguishes it from traditional models.

The absence of subscription plans aligns with the company's business model, primarily centered around its marketplace. Revenue is generated through a modest commission on bounties and the utilization of their native token (ARKM) for creating or participating in bounty programs.

The platform offers a seamless and enjoyable user experience, characterized by a modern and futuristic interface. While the entity view profile is meticulously designed, I observed some limitations in exploring historical blockchain data.

Attempting to retrieve the Bitcoin Pizza Transaction—the first significant transaction on the Bitcoin Network—proved challenging, as the graph only extends back to 2015. However, it's worth noting that the transaction can still be located using the hash ID or by examining the transaction history of a specific address.

Is Arkham Right For You?

Arkham Intelligence caters to a diverse range of users, making it a versatile platform tailored to specific needs. Whether you are looking to monitor your personal addresses, seek information about notable figures in the crypto space, set up bounties, or leverage your analytical skills to contribute intelligence to those placing bounties, Arkham offers a comprehensive ecosystem.

For those focused on personal asset management, the platform provides a user-friendly interface to track and analyze your holdings. If your interest lies in exploring the on-chain activities of prominent figures in the cryptocurrency realm, Arkham's profiling and visualization tools offer valuable insights. Moreover, if you possess the expertise to conduct thorough blockchain analysis, the platform empowers you to participate in the marketplace by contributing intelligence to address-specific bounties.

In essence, Arkham is a dynamic ecosystem that caters to a spectrum of users, from individual investors to skilled analysts, providing tools and features to meet diverse requirements within the blockchain intelligence domain.

Bottom Line

Arkham Intelligence stands out as a multifaceted blockchain intelligence platform that accommodates a wide array of users. Whether you are an individual seeking to manage personal assets, delve into the activities of notable cryptocurrency figures, or a skilled analyst looking to contribute intelligence, Arkham's diverse set of features caters to various needs.

The platform's modern interface, coupled with its unique marketplace for crypto intelligence, sets it apart in the blockchain analytics landscape. While certain limitations may be observed, such as a restricted historical view in some cases, Arkham's utility is significant for those navigating the complexities of on-chain data and seeking a comprehensive ecosystem for blockchain intelligence.

Arkham Evaluation

Although we cannot give Arkham a blockdyor Score, as we currently lack specific evaluation metrics akin to those established for exchanges and wallets, I am inclined to confidently assert that Arkham deserves a 5-star rating. The platform fulfills its promises exceptionally well, and notably, it offers these services at no cost.

Reputation: Arkham Intelligence is a reputable blockchain intelligence platform, recognized for its innovative approach and commitment to providing secure services. The platform has not encountered any security breaches, instilling confidence in users about the safety of their data.

Technology: Arkham Intelligence boasts a technologically advanced platform designed to process, classify, and present on-chain data efficiently. It integrates with multiple blockchain networks, offering a comprehensive solution for both novice and expert users.

Customer Service: Arkham Intelligence provides customer support through various channels, including email and a well-organized knowledge base. While efforts are made to address user inquiries promptly, occasional delays may occur.

Fees: Arkham Intelligence follows a transparent fee structure, particularly within its marketplace for crypto intelligence. Users should be aware of potential fees associated with transactions and bounties.

Ease of Use: Arkham Intelligence offers a user-friendly interface with a focus on advanced features, catering to both casual users and experienced analysts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)