Safaricom and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis have joined Prince William’s United for Wildlife taskforce in a coordinated effort to disrupt the financial networks underpinning the illegal wildlife trade, an industry widely estimated to be worth around $23 billion annually.
Safaricom, Chainalysis Align With United for Wildlife
Kenya’s leading telecom operator Safaricom and Chainalysis, a provider of blockchain data and compliance tools, are part of a broader coalition of international technology, payments, and cryptocurrency companies supporting United for Wildlife. The initiative, founded by The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales, engages private-sector partners to strengthen detection, reporting, and disruption of transactions linked to wildlife trafficking.
Targeting Illicit Payment Flows
The collaboration focuses on identifying and dismantling the financial infrastructure that enables poaching and trafficking networks. Partners are expected to share typologies and red-flag indicators, improve cross-industry data sharing, and enhance staff training and compliance controls to spotlight suspect activity across mobile money, traditional banking, and crypto rails.
Chainalysis’s participation underscores the growing role of blockchain analytics in tracking on-chain movements tied to criminal enterprises. Safaricom’s involvement highlights the importance of mobile money oversight in regions where digital wallets and cross-border transfers are common targets for abuse by organized crime.
Why It Matters for Crypto and Mobile Money
Wildlife traffickers increasingly exploit a mix of payment channels, from cash and informal value transfer systems to mobile money and digital assets. Tighter collaboration between telecoms, payments firms, and crypto analytics providers is intended to close gaps across this spectrum, aligning with global anti-money laundering standards and helping law enforcement trace funds, freeze assets, and pursue prosecutions.
The Scale of the Trade
The illegal wildlife trade is a major transnational crime that threatens biodiversity and local livelihoods while intersecting with other criminal activities. Efforts to cut off financing are seen as critical to disrupting trafficking networks and reducing incentives for poaching.