The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, has been reportedly selling Immigrations and Customs Enforcement tools to track and identify cryptocurrency users, a stunning new report from The Intercept revealed this week.
The company “sold a single analytics software license to ICE for $29,000” back in August 2021 for $29,000, the report says. The next month, however, it sold software worth $1.36 million to the agency, the report says.
A contract involving the sales revealed that ICE “now has access to a variety of forensic features provided through Coinbase Tracer”, the company's internal intelligence tool.
The tool allows people to trace transactions through the blockchain. Coinbase markets the software primarily for use in corporate compliance and law enforcement, the report says. It boasts that the tool has the ability to “investigate illicit activities including money laundering and terrorist financing” and “connect [cryptocurrency] addresses to real world entities.”