{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,1]],"date-time":"2026-06-01T18:13:56Z","timestamp":1780337636783,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760140800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["62202209"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62202209"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["61802155"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["61802155"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cryptography"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Digital currencies, led by Bitcoin and USDT, are characterized by decentralization and anonymity, which obscure the identities of traders and create a conducive environment for illicit activities such as drug trafficking, money laundering, cyber fraud, and terrorism financing. Focusing on the USDT-TRC20 token on the Tron blockchain, we propose a two-layer transaction network-based approach for virtual currency address identity recognition for digging out hidden relationships and encrypted assets. Specifically, a two-layer transaction network is constructed: Layer A describes the flow of USDT-TRC20 between on-chain addresses over time, while Layer B represents the flow of TRX between on-chain addresses over time. Subsequently, an identity metric is proposed to determine whether a pair of addresses belongs to the same user or group. Furthermore, transaction records are systematically acquired through blockchain explorers, and the efficacy of the proposed recognition method is empirically validated using dataset from the Key Laboratory of Digital Forensics. Finally, the transaction topology is visualized using Neo4j, providing a comprehensive and intuitive representation of the traced transaction pathways.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cryptography9040065","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,15]],"date-time":"2025-10-15T08:34:26Z","timestamp":1760517266000},"page":"65","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["A Two-Layer Transaction Network-Based Method for Virtual Currency Address Identity Recognition"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3032-0382","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lingling","family":"Xia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information and Cyber Security, Jiangsu Police Institute, Nanjing 210031, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Province Electronic Data Forensics and Analysis Engineering Research Center, Nanjing 210003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information and Cyber Security, Jiangsu Police Institute, Nanjing 210031, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Province Electronic Data Forensics and Analysis Engineering Research Center, Nanjing 210003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-5734-6544","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhengjun","family":"Jing","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Computer Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou 213001, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qun","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information and Cyber Security, Jiangsu Police Institute, Nanjing 210031, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Province Electronic Data Forensics and Analysis Engineering Research Center, Nanjing 210003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhuo","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information and Cyber Security, Jiangsu Police Institute, Nanjing 210031, China"},{"name":"Jiangsu Province Electronic Data Forensics and Analysis Engineering Research Center, Nanjing 210003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zimo","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information and Cyber Security, Jiangsu Police Institute, Nanjing 210031, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ziyu","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Information and Cyber Security, Jiangsu Police Institute, Nanjing 210031, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"352","DOI":"10.1504\/IJWGS.2018.095647","article-title":"Blockchain challenges and opportunities: A survey","volume":"14","author":"Zheng","year":"2018","journal-title":"Int. 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