A new one has been added to the million-dollar agreements between Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit of the US Homeland Security Service, which deals with cross-border crime and illegal immigration.
The US government paid Coinbase $1.36 million for use of the Coinbase Analytics software license.
Under the agreement, Coinbase Analytics will make public blockchain data available to the government to analyze the information of American citizens.
There is no clarity in the official documents about what information will be shared or analyzed by Coinbase.
However, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated that they guarantee that Coinbase Analytics will not provide any information other than publicly available information on the blockchain.
Similar collaborations have been made between Coinbase and the US government before. Apart from the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, Coinbase Analytics is also used by the US Secret Service.
A $183,750 deal was made with the secret service that would last until May 2024.
Although Coinbase has faced a lot of criticism for its cooperation with the US government, the CEO of the company expressed that they do not regret the agreements made with the security forces.
Contrary to these negative reviews, Armstrong states that making these deals is actually positive for the growth of his company and there is nothing to fear for Coinbase customers.