United_States_v._Gratkowski
United States v. Gratkowski
United States court case
United States v. Gratkowski,[lower-alpha 1] 964 F.3d 307 (5th Cir. 2020), was a case in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit involving the Fourth Amendment implications of Bitcoin transactions.[1][2]
The case centered around Richard Nikolai Gratkowski, who was charged with one count of receiving child pornography and one count of accessing websites with intent to view child pornography. The evidence against Gratkowski was obtained through a search warrant that was based on information gleaned from an analysis of Bitcoin transactions on the blockchain and customer data from the virtual currency exchange Coinbase.[3]
Gratkowski was the first time the question of blockchain data privacy rights came before a federal court.[4]