Christine Sandler, Coinbase’s director of institutional sales has publicly defended the acquisition of blockchain intelligence firm Neutrino. The exchange also claimed that its former data providers have sold its user data to other third parties, in the interview with the financial news channel Cheddar on March 1.

On February 19th, Coinbase – the US digital currency exchange – has reportedly acquired a small-scale blockchain startup called Neutrino. The acquisition is said to investigate ransomware attacks by using the firm advanced blockchain analytics tools.

By acquiring Neutrino, Coinbase has been receiving many concerns from the blockchain community due to the company co-founders’ backgrounds. The former founders of Neutrino were members of commercial software firm Hacking Team, which had been reported to selling spyware to governments and law enforcement agencies.

The blockchain community has been spreading the #DeleteCoinbase hashtag on social media to protest this controversial acquisition. In response to this, Sandler defended the exchange’s decision by acknowledging that the background of some founders in Neutrino was causing controversy. She also claimed that the former providers were selling client data to outside sources and Coinbase team would use their proprietary technology to keep the data safe and protect their clients.

Sandler clarified that Coinbase’s acquisition of broker-dealer Keystone gives the platform to buy and sell securities: “There had been a groundswell of interest in adding the asset to the platform,” she said. “There was some speculation about whether the asset would be classified as a security or not — we’re not securities lawyers. We felt there were compelling arguments on either side.”