Crypto exchanges increasingly supervised

The crypto market is increasingly coming under the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies. According to a report by crypto exchange Coinbase, investigation requests have increased 66 per cent year-on-year. A total of 12,320 law enforcement-related investigations were received between October 2021 and 2022, the exchange said. About 80 per cent of the enquiries came from the US, the UK, Germany and Spain.

With the "increasing growth of cryptocurrencies", Coinbase said, "the number of enquiries from law enforcement and government agencies is also increasing. We try to narrow down overly broad or vague requests to provide a more appropriate response, and in some cases we refuse to provide information at all," Coinbase explained. "We also strive to provide anonymous or bundled data rather than individual customer information."