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Cryptocurrency exchange and management provider Coinbase Inc. has won a $35.5-million contract to safeguard and trade digital assets on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.
The Service, a unit of the U.S. Department of Justice, is responsible for asset forfeitures arising from federal legal cases, including cases that involve recovery of cryptocurrency.
The USMS selected the Coinbase Prime service “to provide custody and advanced trading services for the agency’s ‘Class 1’ (large cap) digital assets, which it manages centrally in support of federal law enforcement,” Coinbase said in a Monday blog post. “The USMS conducted a competitive due diligence process that evaluated a range of solutions, ultimately choosing Coinbase due to our strong track record and ability to securely provide institutional-grade crypto services at scale.”
The Marshals Service selected Coinbase after a competitive bidding process for the five-year contract. Department of Justice spokespersons did not immediately respond Wednesday to Digital Transactions News emails asking how many companies bid for the contract and who held the crypto assets previously.
“Coinbase has a longstanding history of supporting law-enforcement agencies, dating back to the founding of our law-enforcement program in 2014,” Coinbase’s blog post says. “Today, Coinbase works with every major U.S. federal, state, and local law-enforcement agency, as well as international agencies on every continent.”
The company said it launched the Prime service three years ago, and it’s now used by the “vast majority” of spot crypto exchange-traded funds. As of March 31, Coinbase said it protected $330 billion in assets.
