GlobalBit

Payments giant Mastercard has agreed to buy CipherTrace, a firm that scans blockchains for illicit transactions.

The surprise acquisition announced Thursday by the companies in a press release gives Mastercard the ability to track over 900 cryptocurrencies. Details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The deal is the latest sign of robust activity in the crypto tracing sector as governments and banks look to ramp up monitoring and compliance.

Earlier this year, Daniel Loeb’s Third Point Ventures led a $27 million investment in CipherTrace. That round was on the heels of a $100 million Series D that valued competing firm Chainalysis at $4.2 billion.

In a statement, Mastercard President of Cyber & Intelligence Ajay Bhalla said, “With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this.”