A leaked video from analytics company Chainalysis has suggested that transactions in the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) can be traced.

The company probably uploaded the video by mistake and quickly deleted it. However, users downloaded and re-uploaded the material to YouTube.

According to the description, the video was recorded back in August 2023.

Footage from the video had previously appeared on a Monero-focused Reddit thread. The author of the post, nicknamed It, claims that the leaked video shows Chainalysis tracking XMR transactions since 2021 through its own “malicious” nodes on the network.

According to the video tutorial, Chainalysis runs a large number of nodes from different geographical locations and uses multiple ISPs to capture transaction IP addresses and timestamps.

This method potentially reduces the privacy of Monero and allows the location of wallets that interacted with the "malicious" node to be tracked.

Back in 2020, the US Internal Revenue Service selected Chainalysis and Integra FEC to develop a solution that can track transactions on the Monero network.

Recall that in January 2024, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation reported that it was able to trace XMR associated with hacker Julius Kivimäki.