Digital assets exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) is pleased to release their sixth annual Transparency Report.
Their goal with the Transparency Report is to provide customers with data about requests for their information that they “receive from government agencies and law enforcement.”
Coinbase also intend to provide some insight “into law enforcement and regulatory trends around the world.”
This report covers the period from October 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.
With offerings in more than 100 countries, Coinbase has continued to grow its products and services.
As they expand in their scale and breadth, they continue to regularly receive and respond to “requests from government agencies and law enforcement in connection with civil, criminal, or other investigative matters.”
In fact, in 2024 Coinbase received requests from “60 different countries globally.”
These requests include subpoenas, court orders, search warrants, and other formal legal processes.
Their obligation is to respond to these requests “if they are valid under financial regulations and other applicable laws.”
This transparency report underscores a critical balance: the “safeguarding of our customers’ privacy while complying with their obligations under the law.”
They understand that privacy is “a cornerstone of the economic freedom and security that our customers entrust us with.”
It is with this understanding that they “implement rigorous privacy practices, ensuring that our customer information is consistently treated with care and confidentiality.”
Coinbase believe transparency is the “foundation of trust.”
By openly sharing the information in this report, they reaffirm their commitment to “earning and maintaining the trust of our customers, partners, and the communities we serve.”
Each request they receive is carefully “reviewed by a team of trained experts using established procedures to determine its legal sufficiency.”
Where necessary, they will seek to narrow requests that “are overly broad or vague in order to provide a more appropriately tailored response, and in some cases they object to producing any information at all (such as if the request is legally insufficient).”
They also aim to provide anonymized or aggregated data that “aids law enforcement and government agencies with their work, where it is possible to do so, instead of providing individual customer information.”
Key Takeaways:
- There were a total of 10,707 requests during the reporting period, a ~18% decrease from last year’s report.
- The ~51% of requests from outside of the United States was a ~6% decrease from our previous report.
- ~81% of all law enforcement requests were from the U.S., Germany, U.K., France, Spain and Australia.
- The United States remained the top country with the highest number of requests in 2022, 2023, and 2024, with a slight decrease in requests in 2024.
- UK: 1,416 requests in 2023 to 784 requests in 2024Spain: 732 requests in 2023 to 473 requests in 2024
- Requests from Singapore (+221%) grew substantially in the reporting period, from 34 requests in 2023 to 109 requests in 2024.
As in years past, the majority of requests they received both globally and in the U.S. were “from law enforcement agencies in connection with criminal enforcement matters.”