A few months ago, ETHNews reported on the extensive partnerships that Chainalysis has signed with various US government agencies, including the IRS, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Since then, the bitcoin blockchain investigation firm has expanded its reach, receiving additional contracts from the IRS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Drug Enforcement Administration. The most recent purchase orders – those signed between August 22, 2017 and November 10, 2017 – are detailed below.

The IRS contracts are especially intriguing given the agency’s ongoing legal battle with Coinbase, wherein the Department of Justice filed a court petition, later granted, “seeking authorization to serve an IRS ‘John Doe’ summons to obtain a wide range of records related to the accounts of millions of Coinbase’s customers.” Money laundering and tax evasion are clearly issues that weigh on the minds of bureaucrats and politicians alike.

Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin broadly addressed the government’s interest in monitoring bitcoin transactions, worrying about the prevalence of cryptocurrency usage on the dark web.