Coinbase, the U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange startup, has publicly shared part of its response to New York Attorney General Eric Schneidermanâs ongoing inquiry.
âWe applaud the [Office of the Attorney General] for taking action to bring further transparency to the virtual currency markets,â Coinbaseâs chief legal and risk officer Mike Lempres wrote in a five-page letter.
Schneidermanâs office launched a âfact-finding inquiryâ into cryptocurrency exchanges in April, sending a detailed questionnaire to 13 firms, including Coinbase. The inquiry seeks a wide range of information about exchangesâ operations, their leadership, funding, terms of service, privacy protocols, relationships with other financial institutions and use of trading âbots.â
In the public version of Coinbaseâs reply, Lempres addresses the assets kept on Coinbaseâs platform ($150 billion in total), the firmâs funding ($225 million to date), its financial position (âa profitable and self-sustaining businessâ), and its personnel levels (over 300 employees, 1,000 total when you factor in contractors).
The letter describes Coinbaseâs cooperation with law enforcement and regulatory agencies across the globe, its âstate of the artâ cybersecurity program, and its recent systems upgrades, which Lempres says enabled the platform to achieve 99.99% uptime in April.
It also says Coinbase is a federally regulated money service business and has been granted licenses by regulatory authorities in 31 states, including New Yorkâs BitLicense. The letter notes that this controversial license involves âconsiderable regulatory oversight.â
Yet Coinbaseâs full response to Schneidermanâs request will likely remain out of the public eye, per a request from the startup.
Lempres asked for âconfidential treatmentâ for the full response, which the exchange is transmitting âvia an encrypted end-to-end secure file exchange service consistent with our security protocol.â
Rachael Horowitz, Coinbaseâs vice president of communications, later told CoinDesk via email:
âThat full response has a bunch of highly confidential information that we are unable to share publicly. Our aim is to be as transparent as we can in responding to this action publicly so we shared the cover letter.â
Most exchanges CoinDesk contacted welcomed the New York Attorney Generalâs inquiry, but Kraken, an exchange that left New York due to the BitLicense, pointedly refused to cooperate.
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