Address clustering

The use of heuristics and other evidence to group addresses likely controlled by the same person or entity. Common methods include:

• Common-input ownership (UTXO): inputs spent together are presumed to share a controller. Invalid for CoinJoin, PayJoin and other collaborative transactions.
• Change identification: change outputs are attributed to the sender (see Change address).
• Deposit-address reuse: addresses sending to the same exchange deposit address may belong to its customer, though third parties can also pay into it.
• Gas funding (account model): new addresses funded for fees by the same source may be related.
• Behavioural patterns: recurring amounts, timing, fee settings or software fingerprints.
• Off-chain evidence: IP addresses, KYC records or public posts, from service providers or open sources.

On EVM chains the same key yields the same address on every network, but identical contract addresses may have different controllers.

Results are probabilistic. Because clustering is transitive, a single false link can merge unrelated clusters. Each link should be reported with its basis and confidence, and corroborated where possible.