Coinbase and Kraken hit back at NY Attorney General’s scathing criticism

Cryptocurrency exchanges are hitting back at New York Attorney General’s scathing criticism, suggesting the industry lacks fairness, integrity, and security.

Earlier this week, the office of the NY Attorney General office published a report which highlighted a number of risks cryptocurrency exchanges expose their users to, including the possibility of market manipulation.

Yesterday, Coinbase’s Chief Policy Officer, Mike Lempres, published a blog post to clarify some of the report’s findings.

The Attorney General’s report states that “Coinbase disclosed that almost 20 percent of executed volume on its platform was attributable to its own trading.”

Lempres denies the Attorney General’s trading manipulation claims.

“Coinbase does not trade for the benefit of the company on a proprietary basis.” Lempres continued. “In order to provide an easy-to-use customer experience, Coinbase Consumer quotes a price and then quickly fills the order from our exchange platform (Coinbase Markets).”

Kraken has also weighed into the conversation.

The exchange took to Twitter to clarify it does not operate in New York, and has no obligation to cooperate with the investigation as such.

We must, however, object to the highly unprofessional/malicious implication that because we did not respond to the voluntary information request, we *might* be operating illegally. We told you we don't operate in NY. AG trying cases in court of public opinion now?

— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) September 19, 2018

It then went on to take a dig at the Attorney General office, suggesting the report actually helped the exchange get to know competitors a little better.

Thanks to the NY taxpayer for funding this research — saved our Product team a lot of time, and we got some interesting non-public info on our competitors. Excellent overview of issues, and a nice list of 'Questions Customers Should Ask' on pg 32. https://t.co/S5XxopBEyC

— Kraken Exchange (@krakenfx) September 19, 2018

It’ll be interesting to see how this situation turns out – and whether cryptocurrency exchanges can dodge yet another regulatory bullet.

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