7 Certifications to Learn Crypto Investigation

Most people reach this page after a search for how to become a crypto investigator, or for a way to trace money they have lost. The seven courses below cost from a few hundred dollars to just under $3,000. We checked every price and entry rule against the provider's own page on 1 October 2026, and a lot has moved since this list first ran in 2024.

Two things the sales pages leave out. Some of these teach you to trace funds and some are compliance exams, and the two lead to different jobs. And no course gives you enough real cases to work, so a later section shows how to practice on live chain data with the Bitquery Investigation MCP.

The seven courses at a glance

Course	Provider	Price	Who it suits
Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (CCI)	Blockchain Intelligence Group	$999 to $1,999	New investigators who want a full path
Certified Digital Currency Investigator (CDCI)	McAfee Institute	$2,997	People who want a proctored board exam
Advanced Crypto Investigator	TRM Labs	$1,400	Investigators past the basics
Certified Advanced Investigator (CCAI)	Chainalysis	Not published	People who hold the first Chainalysis credential
Certified Cryptoasset AFC Specialist (CCAS)	ACAMS	US$2,095	Compliance and AML staff
Elliptic Certify	Elliptic	US$699	Compliance staff on a budget
Introduction to blockchain	Basel Institute on Governance	CHF 800	Police, banks and prosecutors

What changed since 2024: four prices moved, Chainalysis retired its CISC exam, and the free AnChain.AI course on Udemy that this list used to carry has closed to new students.

Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator (Blockchain Intelligence Group)

Price: $999 for CCI, $1,199 for CCIA, $1,999 for both

The CCI training is self-paced and fully online, and it now comes in three parts. CCI covers the first five modules: how crypto works, the Bitcoin trail, crime on chain, the dark web and chain forensics. CCIA covers the next five, among them DeFi and DEXs, Ethereum, hacks and compliance. The Master path (MCI) bundles all ten modules and takes about 20 to 25 hours.

CCI and CCIA each end in a final exam, the Master path has two, and the pass mark is 80%. Module 8, on Ethereum, also earns a credential of its own, the CCI-E. At $999 the first part is the cheapest self-paced tracing course here with a published price, which makes it a fair first pick for someone new to the work.

Certified Digital Currency Investigator (McAfee Institute)

Price: $2,997

The CDCI carries the highest published price on this list. It runs to 19 modules and about 50 hours of self-paced study, then a proctored final exam. The units start with wallets and how payments move, then turn to address analysis, money trails, laundering patterns, asset seizure and how to write up a case.

The school lets you split the fee into four monthly parts. Pick it if your employer wants a proctored exam on your record and will cover the cost.

Advanced Crypto Investigator (TRM Labs)

Price: from $1,400 per person, or $1,200 each for groups of five or more

TRM Academy runs this course on demand: 13 modules and about 16 hours, plus a final test. TRM says it is built for people who already have crypto forensics experience, and the topics show it. They cover Ethereum, smart contracts, tokens, DEXs, NFTs, DeFi, bridges and cross-chain swaps, then Tron and Solana.

Take it after a first course, when plain transfers no longer slow you down. TRM sells a starter course too, Crypto Fundamentals, from $1,000.

Chainalysis Certified Advanced Investigator

Price: not published

This entry used to be the CISC. Chainalysis has retired that exam, and its Academy now lists the Certified Advanced Investigator (CCAI) as the course that takes its place.

CCAI is on demand and most people finish it in two to three days. The exam lasts two hours, allows notes, and needs 75% to pass. Topics include advanced UTXO tracing, multisig, tracing across bridges, demixing, DeFi fraud, and Solana and Tron. You must hold the Chainalysis Certified Investigator first, and that one needs the firm's Digital Asset Fundamentals course before it.

Chainalysis shows no price for any of the three steps. Its certification page says they are included with a Chainalysis licence, with no per-seat fee. If your employer has no licence, ask Chainalysis what access costs before you plan around it.

Certified Cryptoasset AFC Specialist (ACAMS)

Price: US$2,095 private sector, US$1,595 public sector

CCAS is a compliance credential for staff who manage crypto crime risk at banks and crypto firms. ACAMS has rebuilt it for 2026 with content from Chainalysis. The package now holds four online courses, one of them made of case studies. The exam is 175 minutes and 100 questions.

ACAMS lists all of these figures on the page linked above. That page also lists a pre-launch offer of US$200 off for orders placed by 18 November 2026, with the new courses opening the next day. An older ACAMS factsheet, dated 2023 and still online, shows US$1,995 and three courses.

To sit the exam you need an active ACAMS membership and 40 eligibility credits. Choose it for a job in AML, fraud or legal. If your goal is to trace funds all day, look at the first four courses.

Elliptic Certify

Price: US$699

Elliptic Certify was built with ManchesterCF and the University of New Haven. It teaches how chains and coins work, Bitcoin and stablecoins, the ways crypto is misused, and how AML rules apply to it. Study is self-paced, mostly from e-books, and Elliptic suggests about 20 hours. The price only shows at checkout.

It is the cheapest dollar-priced credential on this list. Like CCAS, it is a compliance course more than a tracing course.

Introduction to blockchain (Basel Institute on Governance)

Price: CHF 800, or CHF 450 for public bodies, non-profits, academics and independent reporters

The Basel Institute teaches this course live online over four days. Each day is a 3.5-hour session with a half-hour break. The class works one money laundering case, in which stolen assets are cleaned, and traces its payments on chain. Other topics include AML rules, risk, and how crypto is seized.

Classes take up to 35 people, and the next two start on 23 November 2026 and 22 February 2027. You get a certificate if you attend the full course. It is the one entry here built around a single case from start to finish.

Practice on live cases with the Bitquery Investigation MCP

A course teaches the method. Skill comes from working cases, and most courses hand you only a few fixed ones.

The Bitquery MCP server gives you live chain data to practice on. You connect it to Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, sign in once, and ask your question in plain English. The AI calls Bitquery's tracing tools and lists the transfers behind each step, so you can check its work the way an examiner would check yours. The install guide covers each client.

It is a tool and it grants no credential. What it adds is volume: any address from a news story or a court filing becomes an exercise. The table maps what the courses teach to a prompt you can try.

Skill the courses teach	Prompt to try	What the AI calls
Follow the money	"Trace where the funds from this wallet went and stop at the first exchange."	eth_trace_dominant_path, which follows the largest transfer for up to 5 hops
Name who is behind an address	"Is this wallet an exchange deposit address? A mixer? A known scam?"	address_labels, drawn from Bitquery's address labels
Group Bitcoin addresses	"Which other addresses were spent together with this one?"	btc_related_addresses, which clusters by shared inputs
Read a wallet's role	"What does this wallet do with the money it receives?"	eth_address_flow_summary, which sorts wallets into consolidator, distributor, relay or hub

Tracing tools cover 19 chains, among them Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron and Solana. The AI Investigation MCP plan costs $149 per month, or $100 per month billed yearly, and a trial comes with 100 free credits. Plans are on the pricing page.

To see a case before you sign up, watch a Tron wallet investigated inside Claude. Two published cases show this kind of tracing at full length: the $110M Tron laundering circuit and the Coldcard wallet hack. Teams that want the whole case handled by an agent can look at Bitquery AI Investigations.

If you came here because your own funds were stolen, a course is the slow road. Read our guide to recovering scammed bitcoin, or ask the crypto investigation service to trace them for you.

How to choose

Pick by the job you want. For tracing work, start with the $999 CCI and move to the TRM course once you have cases behind you. The Chainalysis path makes sense when your employer already works with that firm. For a compliance role, CCAS carries the best-known name and Elliptic Certify costs a third as much.

With the free Udemy course closed, nothing on this list lets you test the field at no cost. The trial credits on the Bitquery MCP and the published cases above are the cheapest way to find out whether you like the work before you pay for an exam.

Whichever you pick, keep working cases. An exam shows what you knew on one day. A trail you traced yourself is what you will talk about in an interview.

First published in February 2024. Updated on 1 October 2026 by the Bitquery team: AI tools helped re-check each course and draft the changes, and every price and entry rule was read on the provider's own page or factsheet before we published. Bitquery sells the MCP server and the investigation service named above. On 2 October 2026 the yearly price of the MCP plan was corrected to match Bitquery's billing catalogue, the ACAMS entry was pointed at the current ACAMS page, and the Chainalysis entry gained a line on how its courses are sold.

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