Coinbase, the world's preeminent digital cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that they will acquiesce with a request from the International Revenue Service, a.k.a IRS, to fork over data of over 13,000 customers. This decision comes after the IRS' initial inquiry back in November 2016 as to whether or not those individuals who purchased bitcoin between 2013-2015 were charged proper cryptocurrency taxes; the company has 21 days to hand over the records.
Coinbase initially denied the IRS any access to their customers information until the San Francisco court ruled in favouring of the opposing party. The company was told they must hand over records of any individual who made a transaction of over $20,000 USD throughout 2013-2015. Customer data will include taxpayer IDs, names, their dates of birth, home addresses, and transaction records throughout that period.
Reacting to this unfortunate ruling, Coinbase explains that they had "fought this summons in court in an effort to protect its customers, and the industry as a whole, from unwarranted intrusions from the government."
The company has informed their loyal customers that the "court order requires us to produce information specific to your account," and cannot provide any legal or tax advice during this time.