What a peel chain is
A peel chain is a long sequence of transactions where, at each step, a small amount is “peeled” off to a cash-out address (an exchange deposit, a swap, a payment) while the bulk of the funds moves on to a fresh wallet. Repeat this dozens or hundreds of times and a single large theft is dispersed into a fan of small, individually-unremarkable movements.
The goal is to break the obvious one-to-one link between the theft and any single cash-out, and to exhaust an investigator who tries to follow every branch by hand.
Why the bulk flow is the signal
The defining feature of a peel chain is that the large remainder keeps moving. At every hop, one output is dramatically bigger than the others — that is the continuation of the chain. The small peels are the leaves.
Recupero follows the largest-value leg at each hop rather than trying to enumerate every branch. That single rule cuts through most of the noise: the peels self-identify as terminal, and the trail of the principal amount stays intact across the whole chain.
Where peel chains end
Peel chains usually terminate at one of a few places: a centralized-exchange deposit address (a subpoena target), a bridge to another chain (the trail continues on the other side), or a mixer (where following becomes probabilistic).
Reaching the endpoint is what turns a trace into an action — a freeze request to the exchange, a cross-chain continuation, or a demixing lead for investigator review.