Kraken, a leading crypto exchange, commented on the outcome of a recent case in a statement emailed to CryptoSlate on July 3.
A company representative said:
“We fought the IRS because they sought intrusive and unnecessary information about US customers… If this information were leaked by the IRS, it would expose Kraken customers to identity theft and other harm, which Kraken prevented.”
Kraken specifically said the requests from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could reveal users’ IP addresses and banking information, as well as users’ net worth, employment information and sources of wealth, such as CryptoSlate reported July 1.
While Kraken was required to submit identifying information about users trading at certain thresholds during certain periods of time, the court denied its request for Kraken to release other KYC/AML data, including employment information, net worth, or source of wealth.
The representative said the exchange appreciated the court denying many of the IRS requests for information. “much wider than necessary.”
The company said its principles include customer security and privacy, claiming that Kraken “will always stand up for its customers, as it has successfully done here.”
Despite Kraken’s partial success in keeping user data private, the company has still been ordered to provide certain information to the IRS. Kraken must provide some identifying information about users who traded at least $20,000 worth of cryptocurrency during a one-year period between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2020.
The company must also provide certain on-chain data.
Kraken has handled $382 million in trading volume in the past 24 hours, placing it among the top 20 crypto exchanges by volume.
The Kraken post says the IRS has been fighting to protect customers from identity theft, other potential harm first appeared on CryptoSlate.