Yuexin Xiang

Yuexin Xiang, Yuchen Lei, Ding Bao et al.

Cryptocurrencies are no longer just the preferred option for cybercriminal activities on darknets, due to the increasing adoption in mainstream applications. This is partly due to the transparency associated with the underpinning ledgers, where any individual can access the record of a transaction record on the public ledger. In this paper, we build a dataset comprising Bitcoin transactions between 12 July 2019 and 26 May 2021. This dataset (hereafter referred to as BABD-13) contains 13 types of Bitcoin addresses, 5 categories of indicators with 148 features, and 544,462 labeled data, which is the largest labeled Bitcoin address behavior dataset publicly available to our knowledge. We then use our proposed dataset on common machine learning models, namely: k-nearest neighbors algorithm, decision tree, random forest, multilayer perceptron, and XGBoost. The results show that the accuracy rates of these machine learning models for the multi-classification task on our proposed dataset are between 93.24% and 97.13%. We also analyze the proposed features and their relationships from the experiments, and propose a k-hop subgraph generation algorithm to extract a k-hop subgraph from the entire Bitcoin transaction graph constructed by the directed heterogeneous multigraph starting from a specific Bitcoin address node (e.g., a known transaction associated with a criminal investigation). Besides, we initially analyze the behavior patterns of different types of Bitcoin addresses according to the extracted features.

Yuexin Xiang, Yuchen Lei, SM Mahir Shazeed Rish et al.

Stablecoins such as USDT and USDC aspire to peg stability by coupling issuance controls with reserve attestations. In practice, however, the transparency is split across two worlds: verifiable on-chain traces and off-chain disclosures locked in unstructured text that are unconnected. We introduce a large language model (LLM)-based automated framework that bridges these two dimensions by aligning on-chain issuance data with off-chain disclosure statements. First, we propose an integrative framework using LLMs to capture and analyze on- and off-chain data through document parsing and semantic alignment, extracting key financial indicators from issuer attestations and mapping them to corresponding on-chain metrics. Second, we integrate multi-chain issuance records and disclosure documents within a model context protocol (MCP) framework that standardizes LLMs access to both quantitative market data and qualitative disclosure narratives. This framework enables unified retrieval and contextual alignment across heterogeneous stablecoin information sources and facilitates consistent analysis. Third, we demonstrate the capability of LLMs to operate across heterogeneous data modalities in blockchain analytics, quantifying discrepancies between reported and observed circulation and examining their implications for cross-chain transparency and price dynamics. Our findings reveal systematic gaps between disclosed and verifiable data, showing that LLM-assisted analysis enhances cross-modal transparency and supports automated, data-driven auditing in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Yuexin Xiang, Tiantian Li, Wei Ren et al.

With the increasing attention to deep neural network (DNN) models, attacks are also upcoming for such models. For example, an attacker may carefully construct images in specific ways (also referred to as adversarial examples) aiming to mislead the DNN models to output incorrect classification results. Similarly, many efforts are proposed to detect and mitigate adversarial examples, usually for certain dedicated attacks. In this paper, we propose a novel digital watermark-based method to generate image adversarial examples to fool DNN models. Specifically, partial main features of the watermark image are embedded into the host image almost invisibly, aiming to tamper with and damage the recognition capabilities of the DNN models. We devise an efficient mechanism to select host images and watermark images and utilize the improved discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based Patchwork watermarking algorithm with a set of valid hyperparameters to embed digital watermarks from the watermark image dataset into original images for generating image adversarial examples. The experimental results illustrate that the attack success rate on common DNN models can reach an average of 95.47% on the CIFAR-10 dataset and the highest at 98.71%. Besides, our scheme is able to generate a large number of adversarial examples efficiently, concretely, an average of 1.17 seconds for completing the attacks on each image on the CIFAR-10 dataset. In addition, we design a baseline experiment using the watermark images generated by Gaussian noise as the watermark image dataset that also displays the effectiveness of our scheme. Similarly, we also propose the modified discrete cosine transform (DCT) based Patchwork watermarking algorithm. To ensure repeatability and reproducibility, the source code is available on GitHub.

Yuchen Lei, Yuexin Xiang, Qin Wang et al.

Cryptocurrencies are widely used, yet current methods for analyzing transactions often rely on opaque, black-box models. While these models may achieve high performance, their outputs are usually difficult to interpret and adapt, making it challenging to capture nuanced behavioral patterns. Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to address these gaps, but their capabilities in this area remain largely unexplored, particularly in cybercrime detection. In this paper, we test this hypothesis by applying LLMs to real-world cryptocurrency transaction graphs, with a focus on Bitcoin, one of the most studied and widely adopted blockchain networks. We introduce a three-tiered framework to assess LLM capabilities: foundational metrics, characteristic overview, and contextual interpretation. This includes a new, human-readable graph representation format, LLM4TG, and a connectivity-enhanced transaction graph sampling algorithm, CETraS. Together, they significantly reduce token requirements, transforming the analysis of multiple moderately large-scale transaction graphs with LLMs from nearly impossible to feasible under strict token limits. Experimental results demonstrate that LLMs have outstanding performance on foundational metrics and characteristic overview, where the accuracy of recognizing most basic information at the node level exceeds 98.50% and the proportion of obtaining meaningful characteristics reaches 95.00%. Regarding contextual interpretation, LLMs also demonstrate strong performance in classification tasks, even with very limited labeled data, where top-3 accuracy reaches 72.43% with explanations. While the explanations are not always fully accurate, they highlight the strong potential of LLMs in this domain. At the same time, several limitations persist, which we discuss along with directions for future research.

Yuexin Xiang, Tiantian Li, Wei Ren et al.

To ensure the privacy of sensitive data used in the training of deep learning models, a number of privacy-preserving methods have been designed by the research community. However, existing schemes are generally designed to work with textual data, or are not efficient when a large number of images is used for training. Hence, in this paper we propose a lightweight and efficient approach to preserve image privacy while maintaining the availability of the training set. Specifically, we design the pixel block mixing algorithm for image classification privacy preservation in deep learning. To evaluate its utility, we use the mixed training set to train the ResNet50, VGG16, InceptionV3 and DenseNet121 models on the WIKI dataset and the CNBC face dataset. Experimental findings on the testing set show that our scheme preserves image privacy while maintaining the availability of the training set in the deep learning models. Additionally, the experimental results demonstrate that we achieve good performance for the VGG16 model on the WIKI dataset and both ResNet50 and DenseNet121 on the CNBC dataset. The pixel block algorithm achieves fairly high efficiency in the mixing of the images, and it is computationally challenging for the attackers to restore the mixed training set to the original training set. Moreover, data augmentation can be applied to the mixed training set to improve the training's effectiveness.