Coinbase Criticized After Signing $1.36M Deal with U.S. Government.

Coinbase may be currently in a battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but that hasn’t stopped the exchange from entering into its biggest contract yet with the federal government.

Official records show the business has inked a $1.36 million deal to provide blockchain analytics software to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which is a branch of Homeland Security.

Inevitably, news of the deal has led to fierce criticism among some members of the blockchain community.

Given how Coinbase generated net revenue of $2 billion in the second quarter of 2021, the Human Rights Foundation’s chief strategy officer Alex Gladstein said of this contract:

“Like, this isn’t very much money for Coinbase in the grand scheme of things. Strange that they would risk so much reputationally for such a relatively small sum.”