The US Marshals Service chooses Coinbase as a crypto custodian

The US Marshals Service said it has signed a contract with Coinbase Prime, the asset custody unit of the Coinbase crypto exchange.

The US Marshals Service, the law enforcement agency of the US Department of Justice, on July 1 announced that it had signed an asset custody contract with the country's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. It is known that US officials will have to pay 32.5 million USD to have Coinbase monitor assets on their behalf, as well as support "other advanced asset transaction services".

Coinbase representative said:

“The US Marshals Service, after a thorough selection and evaluation process of many different solutions, finally decided to choose Coinbase's service based on its experience and ability to custody institutional-grade crypto assets in large quantities. big."

Just announced: theU.S. Marshals Service selects Coinbase Prime to provide custody and advanced trading services for its large cap digital assets portfolio.

Read more about this partnership ↓https://t.co/6CCTz1EGQj pic.twitter.com/zM4R0giDrY— Coinbase Institutional 🛡️ (@CoinbaseInsto) July 1, 2024

Notably, the US Marshals Service contract also mentions the possibility of "liquidating large amounts of popular cryptocurrencies" under the government's confiscation program.

As reported, the US government's cryptocurrency wallets in recent days have frequently moved money to exchanges, making many investors fear the possibility of selling large quantities.

According to Arkham statistics, the US still holds 13.8 billion USD in crypto assets confiscated from illegal activities, including 213,534 BTC (13.4 billion USD), 50,524 ETH (174.2 million USD), 121 million USDT and many other altcoins.

Some people also pointed out the surprise between the custody agreement between the US Marshals Service and Coinbase, because this platform is currently being sued by the US Securities Commission (SEC) for allegedly providing securities services. without a license. In response, Coinbase also sued the SEC, claiming that the securities commission had many actions intentionally hindering the development of the cryptocurrency industry.