Interview with ChainAware.ai

It offers tailored audience targeting and advertising capabilities for the Web3 space, while also providing robust wallet auditing and fraud detection services. By analyzing on-chain data, ChainAware.ai identifies fraudulent activity and issues timely alerts to safeguard users and networks.

In this article, Martin Ploom, one of the co-founders of the ChainAware.ai has been interviewed by Mahsa Doorfard, coinIX’s sales and marketing manager. coinIX invested in ChainAware.ai in November 2024 in the form of SAFT or simple agreement for future tokens.

Would you please introduce yourself and tell us how did you end up in the blockchain industry?

My blockchain journey started in 2014. My twin brother and I published our first Bitcoin price forecast in a Swiss CFA magazine, predicting $10,000 when Bitcoin was $300. People laughed at us then, but three years later, they stopped laughing when we correctly predicted $100,000.

We both worked at Credit Suisse for over a decade before founding Smart Credit, a platform for fixed-term, fixed-interest borrowing. Out of that, ChainAware.ai was born. ChainAware.ai focuses on AI-driven analytics, predictions, and fraud detection on the blockchain.

How would you explain your project to your grandmother?

Imagine your grandmother goes shopping. Our system predicts whether the shop or seller is trustworthy. It analyzes her transaction history to forecast her next actions and offers tailored recommendations. Essentially, we connect the right people to the right offerings at the right time using AI to calculate intentions.

When was the first moment that the idea of ChainAware.ai came into your mind?

It was a gradual evolution. At Smart Credit, we developed blockchain credit scoring, but it wasn’t widely adopted since blockchain lending is typically over-collateralized. However, our credit scoring incorporated fraud detection, which we realized had broader applications.

In February 2023, we launched a fraud detection tool, later rebranding it as ChainAware.ai. By August, we expanded to predictive rug pull detection — forecasting fraudulent activity before it happens. Rug pulls occur when developers withdraw all assets from a liquidity pool, leaving investors with nothing.

Beyond fraud detection, we now predict user risk tolerance, experience levels, and behavioral patterns, such as who will borrow, lend, or trade. All this is consolidated in the Wallet Auditor, which is free for anyone to view wallet-related data, such as fraud risks and historical activity. For businesses, we offer subscription-based marketing solutions, enabling highly targeted, data-driven campaigns.

What problem is ChainAware.ai solving?

Web3 faces two key challenges, similar to the early days of Web2: trust and high customer acquisition costs. In Web2, these were solved by AI-based transaction monitoring and targeted ads.

Web3’s trust issue stems from rampant fraud and rug pulls. New users often leave after being scammed. On the marketing side, the reliance on mass marketing leads to exorbitant acquisition costs, which stifles innovation.

ChainAware.ai addresses both issues. Our fraud detection tools build trust, while our AI-driven marketing solutions lower user acquisition costs. Together, these innovations enable startups to survive and thrive in Web3.

Would you mention some of the recent updates, partnerships, and advancements?

ChainGPT is our lead investor, with coinIX also backing us. Additionally, we’re launching our IDO exclusively on the ChainGPT Pad, likely in mid-January. The exact date is still being finalized. This launch will provide token access, allowing participants to engage in the project.

On CoinGecko, under the AI category (Artificial Intelligence and Analytics), there were 274 companies listed about a month ago. Out of these, only 20 have their own AI models. This raises the question: what are the others doing? A large number of these companies are creating marketplaces — about 100 connect users to AI providers. Another 100 focus on decentralized physical infrastructure (DePINs), while many others simply use OpenAI’s LLMs for generation. These companies are leveraging, not innovating. The real innovation lies with companies building proprietary AI models and algorithms, as these are valuable intellectual property.

This intellectual property is a key differentiator for AI compared to sectors like DeFi, where innovation stalled due to rampant copying. In DeFi, we saw Compound introduce significant innovation, only for AAVE to replicate it, followed by a wave of imitators. Similarly, Uniswap’s ideas were copied, leading to a cycle of marketing-driven growth rather than technological breakthroughs.

In AI, the models are proprietary and require significant time — 18 to 24 months or more — to train and refine. They cannot be copied like open-source code. This exclusivity safeguards innovation, making the AI sector particularly appealing.

Among the 274 companies in CoinGecko’s AI list, only a small fraction creates original models, while the rest merely offer services or secondary tools. Our focus is on real innovation — developing AI models, algorithms, and data that are protected as intellectual property.

We’re also expanding, adding more blockchains and working on a Web3 Marketing Agent with big announcements ahead. Automation and generation capabilities are improving rapidly, with new features being added weekly to our products like ChainAware.ai.

Can you name some of your competitors? What makes your project stand out among your competitors?

Let’s start with transaction monitoring, a legal regulatory requirement for every Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP). Regulators mandate that these entities perform Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and transaction monitoring.

The sector’s approach to these requirements has been flawed. Large investments — over $500 million — have gone into tools like Chainalysis, which focus on rules-based fraud detection for AML. However, rules-based systems are outdated and ineffective in dynamic environments like crypto. Real fraud detection requires AI-driven, dynamic solutions. Static rules fail to counter dynamically evolving fraud strategies.

Major players in the crypto AML space, driven by heavy marketing, have set a precedent of using non-real-time AML tools. These tools, while marketed as transaction monitors, fail to meet the real-time requirements of dynamic transaction monitoring. The future of compliance lies in predictive, real-time solutions.

For instance, our system achieves a 98% fraud prediction rate on Ethereum, validated through backtesting with public data. Real-time transaction monitoring is essential, especially in decentralized environments where accounts can’t simply be locked or blocked like in centralized systems. The industry must move away from legacy AML solutions and embrace AI-powered transaction monitoring for Web3.

The marketing landscape in Web3 mirrors early Web2, where mass marketing and generalized strategies dominated. Web3 projects often rely on crypto banners, key opinion leaders (KOLs), and Twitter campaigns, but these approaches result in high customer acquisition costs with low conversion rates. Founders burn through funds with little to show for it.

In Web2, the ad tech revolution — led by Google with targeted marketing via AdWords — transformed customer acquisition. Our competitors focus on impractical approaches like Twitter DMs or wallet-to-wallet messaging, both of which face significant limitations. Others emphasize token analytics, providing descriptive but non-actionable data. Web3 marketing needs both micro-segmentation (to calculate user intentions) and actionable targeting mechanisms. Mass marketing doesn’t convert because web3 projects need actual platform users, not just token holders.

Unlike competitors, we focus on leveraging on-site engagement. By placing agents and banners directly on a project’s website, founders can convert traffic into users. Personalization is key — generic messages fail to convert. Tailored messaging based on individual user behavior drives meaningful engagement and adoption.

Web3 projects face immense pressure to generate revenue. Platforms like DeFiLlama show a stark disparity: a few projects dominate revenue, while the vast majority struggle to survive. High customer acquisition costs are a primary barrier.

For Web3 to thrive, it must replicate Web2’s success in reducing customer acquisition costs through personalized ad tech. Just as Google revolutionized search and advertising by calculating intentions and enabling micro-segmentation, Web3 needs similar innovation to drive sustainable user acquisition. Without this shift, the sector risks stagnation.

Web3 is at a crossroads. The era of mass marketing and generalized approaches is over. The future lies in personalized, data-driven ad tech that reduces acquisition costs, drives user engagement, and ensures the viability of projects.

Is there anything else you would like to share about ChainAware.ai?

If you’re an innovator or founder creating projects, you’re likely focused on two areas: business process innovation — like automated market makers, lending platforms, or other decentralized systems — and customer acquisition. In Web3, there’s an overwhelming focus on customer acquisition because traditional methods don’t work well here.

This focus often leaves founders with little time to innovate on core business processes. At Chain Aware, we emphasize simplifying these challenges. We encourage founders to use ad-tech solutions to reduce customer acquisition costs and focus on their core innovations. Supplementary processes — fraud detection, accounting, and similar tasks — can be outsourced to providers like us.

The industry currently forces founders to handle these secondary tasks themselves, draining their bandwidth. We say, “Web3 is massive — focus on your core innovation. Let us handle the rest.”

What is your message to the people who have not invested in the blockchain industry yet?

As a CFA and financial analyst, I’ve seen monetary systems evolve every 50–60 years over the past 500 years. Each transition leads to a new system. The current monetary system, sustained by central banking, is gradually transitioning to one based on blockchain technology.

Blockchain isn’t just a novelty — it’s foundational. Self-custody, asset management, and decentralization are the future. This shift will transform the banking landscape, marketing, and many other industries. It will also bring a massive wealth transfer, as first movers in blockchain will benefit significantly.

People often lack historical perspective to see these changes, as they occur once in a lifetime. However, history consistently shows these transitions. Blockchain represents a fundamental revolution.