Desperate Coinbase customers turn to SEC with allegations of fraud

This company is a terrible example of how to do business. It's as if they watched how Google handled AdSense publishers in the early days and decided to copy that model for customer service.

I wonder how well that strategy will play out.

For a company like ours the whole appeal of Bitcoin is the anonymity, so our readers don't have to worry about buying lewd comics and having it show up on their statements. Coinbase tarnishes what Bitcoin stands for and they do not protect artists/publishers.

Do not use Coinbase.

Anyway, they told me to create a new account. Their team would then verify that both accounts are matching, as you have to submit a copy of your passport. The funds would then be transferred from the old locked-out account to the new account.

I did all this over 2 months ago. I am still waiting for the funds to be transferred. I contacted support twice now, and I'm always getting the same reply (we're still working on it).

Fortunately, due to a mistrust of exchanges, I only have a small portion of my crypto-assets on Coinbase and keep most of it offline. However, it's still a non-trivial amount of money. I'm not sure what extra steps I can take now without it being too much effort on my part, because the amount is not that high.

Arbitration clauses don't prevent a lawsuit where there is fraud. One of the cases against Coinbase was forced out of arbitration because of that.

[1] https://www.silvermillerlaw.com/current-investigations/coinb...

  Hello,
  
  Thank you for your interest in Coinbase. Our primary goal is to make digital currency safe and secure for our customers. Coinbase is a regulated Money Services Business under FinCEN (FinCEN.gov), and as part of achieving this goal, we are legally obligated to implement regulatory compliance mechanisms.
  
  Upon careful review, we believe your account has engaged in prohibited use in violation of our Terms of Service and we regret to inform you that we can no longer provide you with access to our service. We respectfully request that you follow the on-screen instructions presented when you log into your Coinbase account to send any remaining balance offsite to an external address.

  Should you have any questions or need assistance, please let us know and we'll be happy to help.
  
  Respectfully,
  
  Coinbase Customer Support

  Hello,
  
  Thank you very much for your phone call about your account restriction.
  
  There are a variety of factors which have been weighed in your case, and we unfortunately are unable to elaborate on our internal decision process. Please know that we do not make these decisions lightly, and do regret losing you as a customer.
  
  We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. If you have any additional questions, please reach out to us by directly replying to this thread.
  
  Regards,
  
  The Coinbase Team

Coinbase doesn't trades securities, and had not even registered as a broker-dealer at the time of any of these complaints.

Wouldn't the Federal Trade Commission be the more apt generic regulator to lodge these complaints to?

Coinbase uses MongoDB, doesn't it? Asking for a friend.

That said, the fact that I made enough money to get a new car rather than lost money probably skews my opinion.

On a serious note, building a production level real time two book entry system is hard. Many times money just disappears because both legs of transactions don't match. The only way to track is some real good amount of sleuthing. But given the amount of customers Coinbase is adding left and right, it might be difficult to find time to get down to this sleuthing.

It would have been best for Coinbase to temporarily hold new accounts to get their shit together. But I guess lure of money from constant trading was too much.

I mean it's on the BLOCKCHAIN, right?