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THE OPPORTUNITY
Meeting the demands of global growth
With accelerating growth, MoonPay, the global leader in crypto payments with over 30M users and 500 partners, identified an opportunity to enhance compliance and financial crime operations by integrating new tooling and streamlining workflows.
As the company scaled across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the UK, and other emerging markets, MoonPay began processing a higher volume of blockchain alerts while also generating its own wallet-screening and fiat monitoring signals. To support this expansion, the Financial Intelligence Unit (“FIU”) set out to establish a more unified approach to triaging, assigning, and resolving alerts across global operations while stitching together intelligence, narratives, and decisions across multiple tools.
At the same time, MoonPay’s FinCrime Data Science team was pushing toward a more rigorous, risk-based operating model, one grounded in high-quality blockchain intelligence, analytics, and flexible workflows that could adapt to how the business actually operates. “As volumes grew across the globe, we needed a single place for intelligence, alerting, and case work, something flexible enough for our needs to dictate the workflow, not the software,” recalls Brian Higdon, Senior Director of Financial Crime Compliance and Technology at MoonPay.
- MoonPay’s rapid global growth prompted a strategic evolution of its compliance and financial-crime operations.
- Increasing alert volumes and blockchain analytics signals highlighted the opportunity for more unified workflows across regions.
- Teams aimed to centralize intelligence, alerting, and case work to support consistent, global investigations.
- A risk-based operating model required richer blockchain intelligence, enhanced global SAR support, and flexible workflows.
One platform to operationalize blockchain intelligence at scale
To support its next phase of global growth, MoonPay deliberately paired best-in-class blockchain intelligence with a platform designed to operationalize it at scale. Within 30 days, MoonPay selected Unit21 as its primary, global case-management and SAR-reporting platform and deployed Chainalysis as its core blockchain analytics provider for wallet screening and ongoing Know Your Transaction (KYT) monitoring. The goal was a tightly integrated system that could turn intelligence into action across both crypto and fiat workflows.
Through Unit21’s direct integration with Chainalysis’ KYT product, alerts flow seamlessly into Unit21, making it the single operational interface for transaction monitoring, investigations, and case management. Analysts can triage, investigate, and resolve Chainalysis alerts entirely within Unit21, with actions written back to Chainalysis automatically via the API. Unit21 also enables MoonPay to prioritize and route alerts using key intelligence signals such as risk level and exposure type, allowing the FIU to surface the highest-risk activity first and manage volume proactively across global teams.
When deeper on-chain analysis is required, investigators can jump directly from Unit21 into the original Chainalysis alert via embedded links, preserving access to Chainalysis’ native investigative tools without fragmenting workflows. The result is a clear division of responsibilities. Chainalysis delivers high-fidelity blockchain intelligence, while Unit21 provides the workflow, prioritization, and reporting layer that turns that intelligence into structured, scalable, and defensible outcomes.
- One operational interface: Chainalysis KYT alerts flow directly into Unit21, making it the single workspace for crypto and fiat transaction monitoring, investigations, and case management.
- Intelligent prioritization at scale: Unit21 routes and filters Chainalysis alerts by risk level, exposure type, and other intelligence signals, ensuring high-risk activity is surfaced and worked first.
- Seamless analyst workflow: Investigations are completed in Unit21, with actions written back to Chainalysis automatically and direct links available for deeper on-chain analysis when needed.
- Clear platform parity: Chainalysis delivers best-in-class blockchain intelligence; Unit21 transforms that intelligence into structured, scalable, and defensible compliance outcomes.
“This integration means our teams don’t have to bounce between systems. Chainalysis gives us the intelligence, and Unit21 lets us organize, prioritize, and act on it in one place. That’s what allows us to manage volume intelligently and stay focused on real risk as we scale.”
Compliance that scales as fast as the business
Within months of adopting Unit21, MoonPay consolidated most FIU case work, alert intake, and investigative review into a single operational system, dramatically improving speed, consistency, and visibility across global teams. Investigations now move faster with full context in one place, even as alert volumes fluctuate and risk profiles evolve.
Unit21 also gives MoonPay full ownership over how compliance work scales. Teams can quickly adapt queues, workflows, and review paths without engineering support, reducing training overhead and minimizing procedural drift as new typologies and regulatory requirements emerge. This flexibility enables MoonPay to maintain a consistent, risk-based approach while expanding globally.
Looking ahead, MoonPay is further reducing operational overhead by deploying Unit21’s AI Agents within AML case-management workflows. With planned Chainalysis-specific AI tasks, blockchain intelligence will be automatically retrieved and contextualized during investigations, extending the existing integration and allowing analysts to focus on judgment rather than manual work.“Unit21 has allowed us to centralize our work, adapt quickly as risk changes, and stay consistent as we scale,” says Brian Higdon, Senior Director of Financial Crime Compliance and Technology. “Now we’re starting to layer in AI to remove even more manual effort so our teams can focus on the risk that actually matters.”
From Hours to Minutes: Global SAR Filing Without Friction
Unit21 has also streamlined MoonPay’s approach to global regulatory reporting. Investigations, documentation, and SAR filings can be completed directly within the platform for jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Canada, with expanding coverage across Europe under frameworks like MiCA.
“Before Unit21, filing SARs meant exporting work, re-entering data into regulator web portals, and often spending a significant amount of time per case on manual steps or data entry,” says Higdon. “Now we investigate and file directly in the same system. What used to slow the team down now takes minutes—and that time savings compounds at scale. It’s allowed us to avoid unnecessary headcount and to stay laser-focused on true financial crime.”
Envisioning AI Embedded Directly Into Daily Investigations
MoonPay is also actively testing Unit21’s native AI to reduce the manual effort of day-to-day alert reviews. Because AI is built directly into the platform—not bolted on—MoonPay is testing the ability to safely automate repetitive investigative tasks such as aggregating customer data, analyzing transaction context, and performing external research without introducing governance or data-movement risk. MoonPay envisions AI to function as “muscle” rather than decision-making, removing low-value steps while preserving human judgment where it matters most.
Together, Unit21 and Chainalysis have enabled MoonPay to build a compliance operation that is efficient today and designed to scale responsibly—supporting global expansion while reinforcing compliance as a true lever for growth.
- Consolidated FIU case work, alert intake, and investigations into one scalable platform.
- Faster, more consistent reviews enabled by customizable workflows and structured checklists.
- Reduction in false positives powered by Chainalysis Data Solutions.
- SAR filing reduced to minutes through direct, in-platform regulatory reporting.
- Testing Unit21’s AI has actively reduced manual investigative work, extending analyst capacity without replacing judgment.
- Compliance now supports global expansion—functioning as a growth enabler rather than a cost center.
“We’re testing AI today to remove the manual work from alert reviews. I love that Unit21’s AI is natively built in—it naturally becomes part of the workflow, handling the muscle of the investigation while our analysts focus on judgment.”