US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has revealed that it received more than 13,000 requests from law enforcement agencies.
According to Coinbase’s latest “Transparency Report” published on November 29, 2023, the crypto exchange says it received a total of 13,079 requests from law enforcement agencies from October 2022 to September 30, 2023, which which represents an increase of 6% compared to last year.
The United States appeared to be the most active country with 5,868 requests, a 57% share of the total number of queries the exchange received during the reporting period. Coinbase noted in the report that the data reflects requests received and “not necessarily requests answered.” It’s unclear how much data Coinbase provided to law enforcement agencies, but it noted that its goal is to deliver “anonymized or aggregated data.”
“We also aim to provide anonymous or aggregated data to assist law enforcement and government agencies with their work, where it is possible to do so, rather than providing individual customer information.”
Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal
In addition to the United States, other countries such as Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain also submitted applications, and Armenia submitted its applications to the San Francisco-based exchange for the first time in 2023.
Ukraine appeared to be the most active country in terms of year-over-year increase, increasing the number of its requests to Coinbase by more than 300% in 2023, data shows. In 95.6% of the requests, law enforcement agencies around the world were seeking information as part of a criminal case, and only 4.4% were related to civil or administrative legal actions.
Coinbase said it may produce certain customer information, such as name, recent login/logout IP address, and payment information “depending on the nature and scope of the request,” but noted that it does not provide any government in no “direct access” jurisdiction. to customer information in our systems or those of third parties.”
In late November 2023, crypto.news reported that the Biden administration is urging Congress to consider the most significant updates to the Treasury’s sanctions authority since 2001. According to US Foreign Trade Representative Wally Adeyemo, it is necessary introduce a “secondary sanctions regime”. as Treasury has already provided Congress with a set of “common sense recommendations to expand our authorities and expand our tools and resources to pursue illicit actors in the digital asset space.
