Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over a $94.66 million contract awarded to rival TRM Labs, challenging what it alleges was an improper sole-source procurement tailored to TRM’s existing products.
The one-year contract runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, and covers forensic software and support for Homeland Security Task Force cases involving scams, cybercrime, and sextortion. The federal award record lists $94,655,840 obligated, with no funds paid out so far.
According to the unsealed complaint, ICE issued a Request for Information on May 28 with responses due June 2, then announced a Notice of Intent to sole-source the work to TRM Labs on June 8. Challengers were given only three days to respond and were limited to one page. Chainalysis Government Solutions says it filed a one-page statement on June 11 and was the only firm to do so. ICE later defended the sole-source path, saying a six-day market-research window showed none of the eight responding companies could match TRM.
The complaint says the May RFI asked whether vendors had a scam-victim database with more than one million records, an AI platform with agentic data retrieval and entity resolution, and an operational partnership with stablecoin issuers for coordinating illicit-asset freezes. Chainalysis argues that several of these items never re-emerged in the June Statement of Need, while the word “sextortion” did not appear in the original RFI but became a headline requirement. ICE nonetheless found Chainalysis lacking in automated real-time disruption, blending on-chain and off-chain intelligence, and victim notification at scale.
TRM Labs’ footprint includes the Beacon Network, which operates with Tether and TRON through the T3 Financial Crime Unit and has reportedly helped freeze more than $450 million worth of USDT linked to criminal activity since 2024. Chainalysis contends that such real-world capabilities were effectively baked into the evaluation criteria, while other cited features were not exclusive to TRM.
Procedural filings show Chainalysis submitted a sealed protest on July 27, TRM intervened to defend the award on July 28, and a redacted version was filed on August 28. Judge Stephen Schwartz has scheduled oral arguments for September 2, with the government requesting a ruling by September 10. Chainalysis is asking the court to stop the TRM deal and require a full and open competition.
