The crypto exchange Kraken has on Friday been ordered by the US court to disclose users’ account and transaction details of its users to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This is a part of the ongoing investigation by the IRS about the allegation of the potential tax under-reporting of users by Kraken.
Therefore, the details of Kraken users who have done transactions of over $20,000 within a calendar year will be shared with the IRS. The details are users’ names (whether real or pseudonyms), birthdates, taxpayer-identification numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and various other documents.
Meanwhile, in 2021, the IRS had previously requested users’ information from Kraken which the exchange refused to disclose to the revenue service. The tax agency is now investigating potential tax obligations of users who conducted cryptocurrency transactions between 2016 and 2020.
In addition to the above, the exchange is also required to share blockchain addresses and transaction hashes which are already included in the transaction data available for sharing. Also, Kraken may as well be required to provide raw data to the IRS.
Furthermore, it appears like the court has rejected revenue service attempts to obtain employment details and source of wealth from Kraken. Additionally, the judge also denied several other requests by the IRS, noting that the demands should only be within what is necessary for the ongoing investigation.
This comes in the midst of a crypto crackdown by the US financial regulators, Kraken had previously been asked to stop its staking services earlier this year, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has also filed separate lawsuits alleging that Coinbase is running an illegal cryptocurrency exchange and also accused Binance.US of alleged mishandled customer funds, misled investors and regulators, and violated securities rules.