Coinbase is one of the largest digital asset brokers in the world, dealing with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and more. The firm offers digital currency transactions and storage in 190 countries. As such, there is a lot of money that goes through the service which means that it prompted the attention of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Nearly a year ago, the IRS requested data from the company to try and find those that might be evading taxes. Now, after suffering a defeat in California"s federal court system, Coinbase will be required to turn over records for some 14,000 users. The IRS is specifically looking for users that sold, sent, or received more than $20,000 through the service.
While the move is certainly alarming, it does shine a spotlight on the grey area that digital currency has in the world today. The ability to hold currency with pseudo-anonymity is one of the key points for currency like Bitcoin, but with the ruling today, it seems that privacy might not always be a given.
Source: The Verge