USMS awards Coinbase Prime a multi-million dollar contract

The US Marshals Service will use Coinbase Prime to custody and trade crypto

article-image

Mirza Kadic/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The United States Marshals Service picked Coinbase Prime to custody and provide trading services for certain crypto seized by the arm of the Department of Justice. 

According to a blog post, Coinbase Prime will hold large-cap digital assets for the USMS. 

“The USMS conducted a competitive due diligence process that evaluated a range of solutions, ultimately choosing Coinbase due to our strong track record and ability to securely provide institutional-grade crypto services at scale,” the post said.

Per an awards notice from the DOJ on the government’s website for awards management, Coinbase Prime will receive $32.5 million for it. 

The USMS first posted the contract earlier this year. The goal, the site said, was to find a partner that could “streamline” handling crypto for the USMS. 

“The US Marshals Service (USMS) department of Justice (DOJ), on behalf of the Asset Forfeiture Division (AFD) has a requirement for managing and disposing of large quantities of popular cryptocurrency assets, known as Class 1 cryptocurrencies,” the listing said. 

The US government has a history of using Coinbase to sell crypto. Coinbase created a law enforcement program back in 2014, the company said, which points to its “longstanding history” of working with the government. 

“Growing the crypto economy means promoting safe and efficient markets, and these partnerships are critical to our mission,” the blog post continued.

However, the exchange has also been targeted by an arm of the government. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a suit against Coinbase last summer alleging that it acted as an unregistered broker and exchange while offering and selling unregistered securities

The regulator and the publicly traded company have been locked in a legal battle since last spring after the latter received a Wells notice about the lawsuit (which was then filed in late June.)

Despite the suit, the US government has continued to use Coinbase to offload crypto, including bitcoin, per data from Arkham Intelligence.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

USDai is a synthetic dollar fully backed by tokenized three‑month T-bills custodied by M^0. When holders stake USDai in an ERC-4626 vault, they mint sUSDai, which finances short-term, amortizing loans secured by NVIDIA-class GPUs and servers.

article-image

The stablecoin bill now heads to the president’s desk

article-image

The House on Thursday passed the CLARITY Act, a landmark cryptocurrency market structure bill

article-image

Interchain Labs will focus on sovereign L1s and institutional demand, abandoning plans for smart contracts on the Cosmos Hub

article-image

Also, only three tokens have outperformed bitcoin so far this year: XMR, HYPE and SKY

article-image

The fund group has submitted proposals in recent months for other funds that would hold litecoin, solana, XRP, HBAR, Sui and others

article-image

Momentum’s back — BTC leads, risk assets follow