Coinbase Director Defends Exchange Over #DeleteCoinbase Hashtag

The Coinbase director of institutional sales, Christine Sandler has defended the crypto exchange controversial move of blockchain intelligence company Neutrino. In a recent interview last week, Sandler said that the previous client data providers were selling Coinbase user data to outside sources.

the Coinbase is one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets in the US which first announced the Neutrino acquisition on 19th February. The firm said that they would be making use of the startup’s advanced blockchain analytics tools, Know Your Customer technology and Anti-Money Laundering.

As we say though, the move came under controversy as details of the Neutrino’s co-founders’ backgrounds came to light. Specifically their prior involvement with commercial software company Hacking Team, whose spyware has allegedly been used by a broad canopy of global governments and law enforcement agencies with authoritarian regimes allegedly among them.

In response to the crypto community uproar over the connections, Sandler defended the exchange saying that it was important to leave their current providers due to their data selling practices.

"We are aware of the backgrounds of some of the folks that were involved in Neutrino [...] It was important for us to migrate away from our current providers. They were selling client data to outside sources and it was compelling for us to get control over that and have proprietary technology that we could leverage to keep the data safe and protect our clients."

In categorising the technology at Neutrino’s technology as “really industry leading and best-in-class,” Sandler explained that the acquisition represented a decision to bring these tools in-house in downplaying the importance of the talent and senior employees’ history.

Furthermore, Sandler gave a mention to Coinbase Pro’s decision to list Ripple’s native token XRP, which status in the US is as a possible security token has complicated its listing on the California headquartered exchange. The director highlighted that Coinbase’s acquisition of broker-dealer Keystone in June 2018 allows the platform to list securities.

“There had been a groundswell of interest in adding the asset to the platform. There was some speculation about whether the asset would be classified as a security or not — we’re not securities lawyers. We felt there were compelling arguments on either side."