Kraken, Coinbase form blockchain council to develop crypto security standards

Crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, along with blockchain firms like Fireblocks, have established a new council aimed at addressing emerging threats like contract exploitation.

American crypto trading giants Kraken and Coinbase have co-founded a new non-profit organization aimed at safeguarding the industry from emerging security threats by developing a “consensus of agreed upon standards.”

In a Wednesday blog announcement, Kraken said the new organization, called the Blockchain Security Standards Council (BSSC), will seek to establish “uniform security standards” to drive confidence in the industry. The council’s founding team also includes Coinbase, Anchorage Digital, Bastion, Figment, Fireblocks, Halborn, OpenZeppelin, Ribbit Capital, and Sentinel Global.

Kraken says all firms in the BSSC are committed to developing “industry security benchmarks and a robust audit process by the end of 2024.” For instance, the BSSC will focus on addressing threats such as fraud, nation-state targeted campaigns, and protocol and contract exploitation.

Besides addressing security issues, the council will also seek to engage with regulators to ensure the sector develops “unified standards that protect consumers while nurturing innovation in the asset class,” the announcement reads.

For Coinbase and Kraken, this is not their first venture into forming councils. In 2019, both platforms co-founded the Crypto Ratings Council to clarify which tokens could be traded without regulatory oversight. Despite these efforts, the council failed to shield Coinbase and Kraken from lawsuits filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023, which alleged that both companies violated securities laws.