Police investigations sent to Kraken nearly tripled in 2018. The United States has stepped up its actions in this area, becoming by far the first country to initiate such investigations.
Across the Atlantic, the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken received nearly three times as many police investigations in 2018 than in 2017, according to a tweet dated January 5.
Cryptocurrencies heavily watched by the US
In 2018, the platform received 475 requests for information from global government agencies, while in 2017, they reached only 160.
And yet already, in 2017, this figure was already considerably higher than the previous year, with 71 requests.
Kraken’s tweet also highlights that US agencies are the quickest to investigate. Thus, 315 of the 475 surveys conducted in 2018 came from US government agencies.
Kraken plays the transparency card
These 315 subpoenas were indeed issued by US law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, HSI, CIA, IRS, SEC and other agencies.
However, the company only received 160 requests from other countries.
Another eloquent figure: while the United States represents around 1/5 of customers, they represent two-thirds of requests.
The detailed infographic titled ‘2018 Transparency Report’ comes shortly after Kraken CEO Jesse Powell openly questioned the lack of clarity regarding the involvement of US fintech Ripple Labs in cryptocurrency XRP .
