Bridge Flow Trace: tracing NEAR Intents (and 6 other privacy bridges) in one request

2026-05-24 — ChainAnalyzer is launching Bridge Flow Trace, a one-request multi-hop cross-chain forensic tracer. It auto-detects bridge solvers (NEAR Intents, Wormhole, Stargate, Across, Synapse, Hop, deBridge), follows relay chains, and emits forensic insights including same-intent correlation with sub-minute cross-chain settlement timing.

5 key insights

1. Privacy bridges are not untraceable

NEAR Intents is intent-based — the user never directly calls the bridge contract, so naive on-chain inspection only shows "a solver delivered some SOL out of nowhere." But the intent_id stamped into the Solana Memo program matches the corresponding Ethereum-side leg byte-for-byte. With Wormholescan / deBridge / NEAR Explorer counterpart APIs, you reconstruct the cross-chain link deterministically.

2. Solver wallets are heuristically detectable

Even previously-unknown solvers are classified at 90%+ confidence with three indicators:

• UUID memo ratio > 50% (proportion of TXs stamped with an intent_id)
• Balance > 1000 SOL / 100 ETH (liquidity provider scale)
• TX frequency > 50/hour (intent processing throughput)

Empirical example (a Solana NEAR Intents solver `HWjmoU...mz16`): 1000 TX / 7h = 138 TX/h, 71% UUID memo ratio, 12,241 SOL ≈ $1.5M balance → classified at confidence 0.92.

3. same_intent_correlation is the forensic smoking gun

{
  "type": "same_intent_correlation",
  "description": "Intent PzUkLi9... settled in 74s: 0.03 ETH on send → 0.687618 SOL on receive",
  "evidence": {
    "intent_id": "PzUkLi9trGapLFsSGCf37xFRwX8kyYZZ8iZvTtqwyeFRwrPEa",
    "send_leg":    { "tx": "0x046ca1fa...", "amount": 0.03,        "token": "ETH", "timestamp": "2026-02-22T07:27:23+00:00" },
    "receive_leg": { "tx": "4QZfXmpjA61A...", "amount": 0.687618, "token": "SOL", "timestamp": "2026-02-22T07:28:37+00:00" },
    "delta_seconds": 74
  }
}

One block of structured evidence proves the cross-chain identity claim on three axes: (a) matching on-chain intent_id memo, (b) 74-second temporal correlation, and (c) USD-equivalent value parity ($67-equivalent cross-chain swap). Drop it straight into a law-enforcement filing or VASP SAR submission.

4. Separating user from solver

Graph roles are 3-way: user (the real origin, your investigation target), relay (short-lived intermediary, just a passthrough), and solver (liquidity provider — infrastructure, not perpetrator). Stopping at solvers prevents the classic mistake of misclassifying infrastructure as suspect.

5. 7 seconds vs 1-2 hours

Manual: pull Solana RPC sigs → parse memos → search NEAR Explorer → reconcile via Wormholescan → trace ETH-side outbounds → identify solvers → stitch the graph. Total: 1-2 hours.
Automated: 6.8 seconds and the full graph + insights drops on your desk. The real win isn't a single SANAE-style investigation; it's processing 100 wallets in batch.

How to use

Subscribed (Business / Enterprise)

Head to /account/bridge-flow, enter an address + chain + depth, get the graph + insights.

curl -X POST https://chain-analyzer.com/api/bridge-flow \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --cookie "session=..." \
  -d '{
    "address": "6ytB6pX3d6avtgzCkRjsyd1jkUJCutyCoc83ZeoVTC6c",
    "chain": "solana",
    "max_depth": 2
  }'

Subscription-free (x402 pay-per-trace)

For one-off investigations or autonomous agents, the x402 endpoint settles at $3.00 USDC on Base / Solana — no account, no API key.

# Single-shot, no subscription — $3.00 USDC on Base/Solana
curl -X POST https://chain-analyzer.com/api/v1/x402/bridge-flow/trace \
  -H "X-PAYMENT: <signed-eip3009>" \
  -d '{"address": "...", "chain": "solana", "max_depth": 3}'

New pricing

Engineering background

The pipeline is 6 stages: Bridge Detector → Counterpart Resolution → Node Classification → BFS Expand → Same-chain Forward Trace → Insights Post-process. The Solver registry (static + heuristic) and the bridge-contract registry (7 protocols / 32 contracts / 7 EVM chains) cooperate so that previously-unknown solvers are still classified correctly.

Deep technical dive + the SANAE TOKEN case study (the work that motivated this build): see the Qiita article (Japanese):

• NEAR Intents で cross-chain 資金洗浄を追跡する — ChainAnalyzer Bridge Flow Trace
• Bridge Flow Trace docs (technical reference)

Acknowledgement

The SANAE TOKEN investigation that motivated this build started with @hiropi_fx's initial tracing.

Links

• Try Bridge Flow Trace (Business / Enterprise)
• Bridge Flow Trace documentation
• Pricing
• x402 Discovery (all endpoints)