France’s 111% Coinbase Data Surge Signals Global Crypto Crackdown Intensifying

Governments are turning up the heat. A massive spike in official requests for user data from one of crypto's biggest exchanges reveals a new phase in the global regulatory squeeze.

The French Frontline

France isn't just asking politely anymore. It's leading the charge with a staggering 111% increase in formal data requests to Coinbase over the past year. That number isn't a glitch—it's a policy. It signals a coordinated push by European authorities to pull back the curtain on blockchain anonymity, treating exchanges as the new gatekeepers of financial intelligence.

Beyond Borders

This isn't a Parisian problem. The surge from France mirrors rising pressure from a coalition of international regulators. They're no longer debating whether to regulate crypto; they're executing a playbook to track it. Every transaction leaves a digital footprint, and authorities are now demanding the map. The era of 'ask for forgiveness, not permission' is slamming headfirst into the era of subpoenas and compliance orders.

The Compliance Reckoning

For the industry, this is the real stress test. It's not about price volatility—it's about operational endurance. Exchanges are caught in the middle, forced to balance their ethos of decentralization with the hard reality of legal jurisdiction. Building robust, lawful compliance frameworks is now as critical as building a secure wallet. Those who fail get cut off from the traditional financial system they often love to critique.

The tightening vise of international data requests proves one of finance's oldest rules: if you can't regulate the asset, you regulate the pipe. And right now, the plumbers are getting a lot of official paperwork.

How Coinbase Processes Incoming Requests

The company is available in more than 100 countries, and any such growth in its international reach naturally leads to a higher number of interactions with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies.

In 2025, the company had received orders from more than 60 countries. These could be subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, and other legal processes linked with civil or criminal investigations.

The company said that each request is carefully reviewed to ensure it complies with the law. If an order is too broad or ambiguous, Coinbase tries to curtail it. Some requests fall short of legal bars; the company denies them those.

The company also said it’s committed to protecting user privacy by providing aggregate or anonymized request stats where available, instead of giving over details tied to an individual customer.

The bulk of requests globally “continued to be focused on criminal enforcement matters, as they have been for a number of years,” the company reported.

Coinbase stressed that it does not allow any government direct access to customer data stored in accordance with its processes within its systems or the systems of vendors that run its infrastructure. All disclosure is formally reviewed, and there are procedures.

Transparency as a Core Part of Operations

Coinbase said transparency remains essential to the trust users place in its platform. The company hopes to demonstrate how it weighs privacy concerns with legal obligations by disclosing these numbers and explaining how requests are processed.

The report includes all of Coinbase’s products, such as Coinbase.com, Exchange, and Prime. The post provides perhaps the clearest view yet of how government requests have evolved as crypto has started to take off.