ART: A Graph-based Framework for Investigating Illicit Activity in Monero via Address-Ring-Transaction Structures

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Venturi, Andrea, Jerico-Yoldi, Imanol, Zola, Francesco, Orduna, Raul
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Venturi, Andrea
Jerico-Yoldi, Imanol
Zola, Francesco
Orduna, Raul
author_facet Venturi, Andrea
Jerico-Yoldi, Imanol
Zola, Francesco
Orduna, Raul
contents As Law Enforcement Agencies advance in cryptocurrency forensics, criminal actors aiming to conceal illicit fund movements increasingly turn to "mixin" services or privacy-based cryptocurrencies. Monero stands out as a leading choice due to its strong privacy preserving and untraceability properties, making conventional blockchain analysis ineffective. Understanding the behavior and operational patterns of criminal actors within Monero is therefore challenging and it is essential to support future investigative strategies and disrupt illicit activities. In this work, we propose a case study in which we leverage a novel graph-based methodology to extract structural and temporal patterns from Monero transactions linked to already discovered criminal activities. By building Address-Ring-Transaction graphs from flagged transactions, we extract structural and temporal features and use them to train Machine Learning models capable of detecting similar behavioral patterns that could highlight criminal modus operandi. This represents a first partial step toward developing analytical tools that support investigative efforts in privacy-preserving blockchain ecosystems
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_16192
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ART: A Graph-based Framework for Investigating Illicit Activity in Monero via Address-Ring-Transaction Structures
Venturi, Andrea
Jerico-Yoldi, Imanol
Zola, Francesco
Orduna, Raul
Cryptography and Security
Emerging Technologies
Machine Learning
Social and Information Networks
As Law Enforcement Agencies advance in cryptocurrency forensics, criminal actors aiming to conceal illicit fund movements increasingly turn to "mixin" services or privacy-based cryptocurrencies. Monero stands out as a leading choice due to its strong privacy preserving and untraceability properties, making conventional blockchain analysis ineffective. Understanding the behavior and operational patterns of criminal actors within Monero is therefore challenging and it is essential to support future investigative strategies and disrupt illicit activities. In this work, we propose a case study in which we leverage a novel graph-based methodology to extract structural and temporal patterns from Monero transactions linked to already discovered criminal activities. By building Address-Ring-Transaction graphs from flagged transactions, we extract structural and temporal features and use them to train Machine Learning models capable of detecting similar behavioral patterns that could highlight criminal modus operandi. This represents a first partial step toward developing analytical tools that support investigative efforts in privacy-preserving blockchain ecosystems
title ART: A Graph-based Framework for Investigating Illicit Activity in Monero via Address-Ring-Transaction Structures
topic Cryptography and Security
Emerging Technologies
Machine Learning
Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16192