The FBI leads the number of requests to Coinbase for information about its customers, with 30%. Most of the requests come from countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Government agencies requested cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase for information about its customers more than 4,000 times during 2020. The company recently told its customers about that situation through a transparency report.
The document seeks to “inform customers about requests for information from law enforcement agencies,” according to the Coinbase blog.
The report corresponds to the second half of the year when the company received 54% of the requests for the whole year. In that period, government agencies made 2,313 of the 4,227 requests for customer data for all of 2020. Likewise, 90% of requests in the second period came from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, the report added.
Potential criminal actions were allegedly the reason for more than 95% of the requests. However, the Coinbase document does not specify how much corresponded to possible money laundering, tax evasion, theft, or other illegal acts.
The transparency statement delimits the agencies that made the highest number of requests for this type of information. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) leads the aforementioned list with 30%.
The figure is not surprising as the FBI has been increasingly aware of the movements of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, in search of illicit activities. However, they use mixers to obfuscate the trail of the bitcoins that they have managed to seize.
A former agent of the government agency recently joined Chainalysis, one of the largest blockchain and cryptocurrency trackers in the world. The new CTO of the company, who actively collaborates with the US government, worked in the FBI for 23 years.
The IRS Requests Exchanges for User Data to Combat the Privacy of Cryptocurrencies
Regulators, tax agencies, and security forces seem to be tightening the control on users of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In recent days, a US court authorized the IRS, the country’s tax agency, to request the Kraken exchange to provide the identity of its users.
The IRS was also involved in the requests to Coinbase for its users’ data, with more than 10% of them. This government agency has always been against the privacy of cryptocurrencies, which could relate to illegal activities. They have even taken an eye on crypto-assets like Zcash and the network of Bitcoin payment channels Lightning Network.
At the same time, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has proposed tighter restrictions on the privacy of cryptocurrency users. The agency made new recommendations on the regulation of Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, DeFi platforms, P2P markets, stablecoins, and cryptocurrency service providers.
According to Dave Jevans, CEO of blockchain intelligence firm CipherTrace, the FATF will announce the guidelines around June 15th. Jevans called on the Bitcoin community to be aware of the new regulations on crypto assets.
By Alexander Salazar
