Coinbase has received a multi-year contract to provide its blockchain analytics software to the U.S. Secret Service.
According to public records, Coinbase is licensing its blockchain analytics software, Coinbase Analytics, to the law enforcement agency in a four-year contract worth up to $183,750. The contract is set to expire on May 9, 2024.
Jonah Force Hill, a U.S. cyber policy advisor for the Secret Service is sharing how criminals are exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic for financial gain. In a recent Forbes interview, Hill also offers fresh insight into the Secret Service’s stance on cryptocurrencies and the criminals’ use of digital assets during the pandemic.
“The Secret Service investigates crimes with a cryptocurrency nexus when they 1) undermine the integrity of financial and payment systems, 2) are used in cases of fraud, and 3) are used as a means of money laundering.”
When asked about a recent report that said only 1.1% of cryptocurrency transactions are used for criminal purposes, Hill said it’s a tough number to confirm.
“As we discussed [previously], this is a challenging question and a difficult statistic to quantify. This is because crypto-related crime’ isn’t really a category of crime. Rather, crypto is an element of crime. It [can] be used as a criminal tool (e.g., for money laundering) or can itself be a target for crime (e.g., for theft).”
Besides the Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have also expressed interest in using Coinbase Analytics to identify criminals relying on cryptocurrencies to move money or obscure their activities.