Grab, Microsoft alum look to combat crypto theft

Eleos Labs, which launched in Singapore on Friday, is developing enterprise software that works with existing crypto wallets to help stop – or at least reduce – theft.

The unveiling comes just a week after research firm Chainalysis called 2022 “the biggest year ever for crypto hacking,” with US$20.1 billion in cryptocurrency having been siphoned off in the year by hackers.

Eleos Labs, a new security company, is developing software that can help stop crypto theft. / Image credit: Tech in Asia

Eleos Labs’ new software identifies trades within high-risk decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms using standard enterprise cybersecurity tools. This includes a blacklist of addresses suspected of being involved in fraudulent activities.

Eleos Labs is helmed by Grab alumni Wui Ngiap Foo and Gennady “Ari” Medvinsky.

Foo, Eleos Labs’ new group adviser, was the previous head of technology and integrity at Grab. He is also the CEO and co-founder of Ethlas, a blockchain gaming platform. Both Eleos Labs and Ethos will eventually be brought together under a yet-to-be-formed parent company.

Foo Wui Ngiap, formerly head of AI initiatives at Grab, is Eleos Labs’ new group adviser. / Photo credit: Grab

Medvinsky previously worked on security at Google, Grab, and Microsoft. Gennady is a co-founder and the CTO of Ethlas.

Ben Livshits, former CEO of Zilliqa Research and chief scientist at Brave Browser, has joined Eleos Labs as scientific adviser. He is also an associate professor at Imperial College London. Livshits and Medvinsky worked together at Microsoft.

Eleos Labs declined to comment on fundraising for the new company. In 2022, Ethlas raised US$8.7 million in seed funding.

Watching where the tokens go

FailSafe, a suite of applications designed to protect DeFi systems, is at the core of the new business. FailSafe uses both a reputation-scoring system and transaction intervention software, which watches a wallet for unusual activity.

Medvinsky tells Tech in Asia that Eleos Labs used a “ton of information,” including previously sanctioned blockchain addresses, to help build its blacklist.

He says the reputation-scoring system digests blockchain data on whom an address interacts with and how often. A history of transactions to mixers, DeFi sites designed to obscure the ownership of digital assets, would raise a large red flag.

Getting ahead of the fraud

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