Consumer complaint received 2017-11-02
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: TN
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I am concerned that Coinbase may be in financial trouble. Coinbase is a crytocurrency exchange like the one in XXXX that lost customer bitcoin a few years ago ( XXXX XXXX  ). I 'm wondering if Coinbase has lost customer coins and is trying to make up for it by convincing people like me to send my bitcoin and ether to their exchange. I transferred bitcoin and ether away from Coinbase in XX/XX/XXXX. That bitcoin and ether is currently worth around {>= $1,000,000}. It feels like Coinbase is trying to convince me to send these coins back to Coinbase by telling me things that are not true. For example, I submitted an application for higher trading limits in XX/XX/XXXX. I applied for a weekly trading limit of {>= $1,000,000}. That way, if there is a sharp drop in bitcoin price, at least I may get {>= $1,000,000} of value over the course of 1 week, instead of watching the price fall without being able to sell my bitcoin or ether. Right now, my weekly limit is only {$50000.00}. It feels like Coinbase is trying to entice me to send my bitcoin and ether back to Coinbase by telling me ( on 3 separate occasions, after XX/XX/XXXX ) that my application for higher trading limits was approved ( WHEN, IN FACT, IT WAS NOT ). Three separate Coinbase representatives on three separate dates told me that my application was approved. Fortunately, each time I checked my account before transferring my bitcoin/ether back to Coinbase. When I logged into my account, it looked like my trading limit was still only {$50000.00}. One particularly strange communication that seems sinister to me is a response from one of the representatives that had falsely told me previously that my application had been approved. In response to my request for an explanation why I was falsely told that my application had been approved, he said " This may be related to limits for other payment methods '' ( AS IF HE DID N'T REMEMBER WHY HE TOLD ME THAT MY APPLICATION WAS APPROVED ). To be more specific ... on XX/XX/XXXX, this representative told me " I do see you got a limit increase beyond your $ XXXX ''. I notified Coinbase the very next day that it looked like my trading limits were still only {$50000.00} ( fortunately I checked this before I sent my bitcoin/ether back to Coinbase ). On XX/XX/XXXX ( only 2 days after he falsely told me my application had been approved ), he seems to act like he 's not sure why representatives keep telling me that my application is approved. However, He was the one who did it just two days earlier!! You would think he would know exactly why he told me that. His exact comment was " You may have gotten emails about an increased limit '' ( Yeah, from you just 2 days ago ... ) Then he says, " This may be related to limits for other payment methods. '' ( as if he ca n't remember why he told me what he told me just two days ago ... ) It just seems so fishy when I get a response like that. So, all of that makes me wonder if there is more that is going on here. It makes me wonder if Coinbase has lost customer coins the way that XXXX lost customer coins a few years ago. Maybe Coinbase is trying to entice customers like me to send our coins to their exchange by telling us things that are not true ( like I can have higher trading limits ). In fact, one of the Coinbase representatives said on XX/XX/XXXX, " wed strongly encourage you to make full use of your existing limits. Thats the best way to get higher limits approved, honestly! '' In this comment, he seems to be telling me that the best way for me to get my application approved is to trade more ( of course, I would need to move my coins back to maximize my use of the trading limits ). This comment from XX/XX/XXXX seems to contradict a more recent claim that " were subject to some pretty serious laws in the US around money transmission and laundering ''. It 's important for companies to do due diligence on customers, but I submitted my application almost 5 months ago. Due to conflicting messages, false statements, and extremely long wait time, it seems more likely to me that Coinbase is in financial trouble. It seems like they are delaying the application process because they do n't have the financial solvency to handle the other side of my trades if I decide to sell {>= $1,000,000} of bitcoin in a single week. So, maybe their only solution is to convince people like me to send my bitcoin/ether back to Coinbase so they have some kind of reserves on hand. Maybe the real reason they are delaying my application is because they do n't have the funds to provide to me if I sell {>= $1,000,000} on their exchange due to their loss ( or possible theft ) of customer coins.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation