The San Francisco-based crypto exchange Coinbase is offering a cloud-based platform dubbed Coinbase Analytics to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
A heavily redacted DEA document regarding the possible acquisition of the blockchain analysis platform from Coinbase reveals the agency wants to use Coinbase Analytics to boost its capabilities to trace the movement of money.
“Coinbase Analytics (CA) cryptocurrency intelligence tool provides investigators with identity attribution and [deanonymizes] virtual currency addresses domestically and internationally.
CA is known for its accuracy of attribution which includes some of the most conservative heuristics used in commercial blockchain tracing tools. This is critical in avoiding [a] false positive during target identification.”
Meanwhile, the IRS is looking to use Coinbase Analytics to catch up with people who use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to obscure criminal activity.
“Coinbase Analytics (fka Neutrino) allows for the analysis and tracking of cryptocurrency flows across multiple blockchains that criminals are currently using. Coinbase Analytics also provides some enhanced law enforcement sensitive capabilities that are not currently found in other tools on the market.”
Last year, Coinbase announced the purchase of the blockchain-tracking platform Neutrino.
The acquisition gave the crypto exchange the ability to comprehensively map blockchain networks and unmask suspicious transactions.