The Nov. 20 announcement covers a number of tools and methods that bring CipherTrace closer to being able to track Monero transactions—although not break the privacy of individual users, the firm stressed. CipherTrace said it has been working on those tools since early 2019, as part of a Department of Homeland Security project. The firm claims that the new developments have laid the groundwork for future tools “like entity transaction clustering, wallet identification, exchange attribution, and other functionality that will provide law enforcement with even more tools for investigating Monero transactions and addresses related to criminal activity.”