Chain Hopping

Chain hopping is the laundering technique of moving value across multiple blockchains to obscure a single continuous fund-flow trail.

Chain hopping frustrates single-chain tracing by shifting value between networks — Bitcoin to Ethereum to Tron — using exchanges, swap services, or bridges as the crossing points. Each hop breaks the continuous transaction graph, so following the money requires correlating an outflow on one chain with a matching inflow on another. Cross-chain tracing and bridge tracing reconstruct these links by matching amounts, timing, and known service addresses. When resolved, the hops rejoin into one counterparty graph and a coherent exposure breakdown; when not, chain hopping is itself a risk signal that raises an address risk score.