"Strange that they would risk so much reputationally for such a relatively small sum," one critic wrote.
Coinbase may be currently in a battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but that hasn’t stopped the exchange from entering into its biggest contract yet with the federal government.
Official records show the business has inked a $1.36 million deal to provide blockchain analytics software to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which is a branch of Homeland Security.
Inevitably, news of the deal has led to fierce criticism among some members of the blockchain community.
Given how Coinbase generated net revenue of $2 billion in the second quarter of 2021, the Human Rights Foundation’s chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein said of this contract:
“Like, this isn’t very much money for Coinbase in the grand scheme of things. Strange that they would risk so much reputationally for such a relatively small sum.”
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The Latest of Many Deals
Coinbase has previously also reached agreements with the U.S. Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service, giving both governmental agencies access to software that can monitor how cryptocurrencies are moved across blockchains.
When news of these deals emerged last summer, the company stressed that the information provided through its analytics products “has always been kept completely separate from Coinbase internal data” — a statement designed to assuage fears that personally identifiable details related to its customers was being shared.
