Who We Are
c4 Academy is the world's most comprehensive cryptocurrency crime investigation training, tools, and forensics platform.
We exist because cryptocurrency crime has outpaced the capability of the people responsible for investigating it. Law enforcement agencies, compliance teams, legal professionals, and financial investigators are encountering blockchain-based crime every day, and most of them have never been trained to handle it. c4 was built to close that gap.
We are not a software company that sells certifications on the side. We are an investigation-first training platform built by investigators, lawyers, and forensics professionals who have worked the cases, written the manuals, and built the tools from the ground up.
What We Do
c4 Academy delivers cryptocurrency crime investigation capability across three integrated pillars:
- c4 Courses: Professional certification programs for investigators, compliance professionals, legal teams, first responders, and senior officials. From 3-hour command briefings to 48-hour analyst certifications, every program is built around real investigative workflows, legal frameworks, and field demands.
- c4 Tools: Purpose-built forensic investigation software. c4 Lab is a desktop platform for deep blockchain forensics and cryptocurrency analysis. c4 Field is a USB-deployable acquisition tool for crime scene first responders.
- c4 Manuals: The Cryptocurrency Investigation and Forensics Manual by Rohas Nagpal. Six volumes covering wallet investigation, technical foundations, blockchain tracing, covert digital infrastructure, crime scene protocols, and legal enforcement across 34 jurisdictions.
Our Mission
To build a global community of trained, certified cryptocurrency crime investigators equipped to detect, trace, attribute, and prosecute blockchain-based crime from the first red flag to court-ready evidence.
Cryptocurrency crime will not stop growing. Criminal tools evolve continuously: cross-chain bridges, privacy protocols, AI-generated personas, and DeFi obfuscation layers.
The only durable response is a trained investigative community that can operate with or without any single tool, in any jurisdiction, against any crime type. That is what c4 trains for.
Why c4 Is Different
Most cryptocurrency investigation certifications available today are vendor-led. They train users on one software product. When the subscription ends, capability ends with it.
c4 is different by design.
- Investigation-first and platform-independent certification design
- Methodology-first training: wallets, tracing, evidence preservation, and courtroom presentation
- Coverage across major blockchain ecosystems, legal frameworks, and crime types
- c4 Lab and c4 Field included as tools, not prerequisites for understanding investigations
- Professionals can investigate with any toolset in any jurisdiction
The Problem We Are Solving
A landmark RAND Corporation study, conducted with the U.S. National Institute of Justice and the Police Executive Research Forum, identified 24 critical capability gaps in law enforcement handling of cryptocurrency-related crime.
The findings confirmed what practitioners already knew:
- Most agencies lack access to effective blockchain tracing tools
- Most investigators have never been formally trained in cryptocurrency forensics
- Most supervisors and prosecutors cannot evaluate blockchain evidence accurately
- Most jurisdictions have no consistent protocol for cryptocurrency crime scene first response
These gaps show up in failed prosecutions, mishandled seizures, missed evidence, and criminal networks that operate with confidence. c4 was built to address those gaps systematically through integrated training, manuals, and tools.
Our Team
c4's founding and instructor team combines field investigation, digital forensics, legal strategy, and blockchain engineering.
Rohas Nagpal
Chief Investigator
Rohas Nagpal is an author, lawyer, and investigator with over 25 years of experience. He has worked across 18 countries on complex cases involving digital forensics, cyber terrorism, financial crime, and corporate liability.
He co-founded Asian School of Cyber Laws in 1999 and has assisted the Government of India in drafting rules under the Information Technology Act.
He authored the Cryptocurrency Investigation & Forensics Manual and the Cyber Crime Investigation Manual, described by The Times of India as the "Bible for cybercrime investigators", and wrote India's first legal commentary on the Information Technology Act.
Rohas first encountered Bitcoin in 2011 during a narcotics investigation, an experience that led to a long-term focus on blockchain, cryptocurrency crime, and financial infrastructure.
He later co-founded BankChain, a blockchain consortium of 37 banks, designed a Layer-1 protocol for regulated finance, and served as a consultant to the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub on NFTs & CBDCs.
Santosh Khadsare
Digital Forensics & Cyber Incident Response
Santosh Khadsare is an Army veteran, TEDx speaker, and former Scientist E at CERT-In, Ministry of Electronics and IT, Government of India, with over 25 years of experience in digital forensics and incident response.
He has led digital forensics lab operations at CERT-In, handled live cyber incidents, and driven investigator capacity-building for government and law enforcement teams.
His operational focus includes field-to-lab workflows, courtroom-oriented evidence handling, and practical mentoring for investigators working on national-level cyber investigations.
Shinam Arora
Blockchain Systems & Digital Evidence
Shinam Arora is a computer science engineer with 15+ years of experience in blockchain systems and digital evidence analysis. She is co-founder of BankChain (a consortium of 37 banks with IBM, Microsoft, and Intel), and co-founder of HyFi Blockchain and Sara AI.
She was the co-founder and CEO of Primechain Technologies, where she led teams building blockchain and cyber platforms and worked on applied blockchain use-cases for regulated sectors.
Her work at c4 ensures that investigation training and tooling stay technically accurate to real blockchain behavior, including edge cases investigators face in live cases.
Our Approach to Training
Every c4 program is built around a single principle: training should produce investigators who can act, not just professionals who can describe what an investigator does.
- Real cases, not toy examples: Case studies, challenges, and exercises are drawn from real cryptocurrency crime investigations.
- Legal defensibility from day one: Investigators are trained to document methodology, establish chain of custody, and present findings that withstand challenge in court.
- Platform-independent methodology: c4 teaches underlying tracing and attribution methodology so investigators are not locked to one vendor stack.
- Depth over breadth: The CCA delivers genuine depth across six skill areas so learners can handle novel investigative situations.