Consumer complaint received 2018-03-14
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: OR
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other service problem

Complaint:
I bought a bitcoin and an etherium coin from the company Coinbase in XXXX, XXXX. At the time I had been living in Oregon since XXXX. I had a vehicle registered in Oregon as well, and a credit union account with an Oregon credit union. My first  purchase was on XXXX XXXX I purchased XXXX Bitcoin online on Coinbase using a credit card, which was charged {$140.00}, correlative to the price of bitcoin at the time. On XX/XX/XXXX I purchased 1 ethereum for {$200.00}, which was withdrawn from my credit union account. Also on XX/XX/XXXX I bought XXXX bitcoin for {$2200.00}, withdrawn from credit union account. On XX/XX/XXXX I sent XXXX bitcoin from my Coinbase account to a different website. On XX/XX/XXXX, I bought another XXXX bitcoin, paying Coinbase {$920.00}. 

All these details are facts outlining that I have approximately XXXX bitcoin, as well as XXXX ethereum, and XXXX bitcoin cash coin ( a forked coin of bitcoin, which Coinbase deposited to anyone who had bitcoin at the time of the fork ). 

In XXXX I went to travel in a different country and I cancelled my cell phone service plan, as not to waste money on a plan I wasn't using while I was out of the country. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that it was the phone number I had used for my Coinbase login verification. Each time I logged in, Coinbase would send a code in the form of text to the cell phone number, and I'd enter the code to securely log in to my Coinbase account. Well, since the cellphone number was cancelled, Coinbase asked me to submit a firm of ID to verify who I am. I still have a drivers license issued by the state of Hawaii, where I lived for several years prior to XXXX. It is a valid license and does not expire for several years, so I never got a new one from the Oregon dmv. In fact, it wasn't even a requirement when registering my vehicle in Oregon early XXXX. So to verify my account, I sent Coinbase a photo of my license. They assumed that since I had a Hawaii license that I was a Hawaii resident, and per their policy of not dealing with Hawaii residents, locked me out of my account indefinitely. From that point I have sent more than 10 emails to the company, many of which were not replied to. The responses I do receive were all auto reply emails that didn't address my particular concern. I explained all of this to coinbase in many emails and not once did anyone help me in a productive manner. 

In the time that my account was locked, the price of bitcoin went up to almost {$20000.00}, and ethereum to over {$1000.00}. However, I had no opportunity to sell my bitcoin at that time because coin base had unrightfully locked me out of my account, with little explanation and no real attempts to help me. I'm not saying that I would have for sure sold my coins when they were valued at their highest, but the point is that Coinbase didn't allow me such an option, and essentially ignored my inquiries. At one point they held {$25000.00} worth of currency, between my holdings in bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash. To this day, they do not allow me to access my account, not do they allow me to send my cryptocurrency to any other accounts. They have essentially hijacked these assets and made no effort to return them. Today the assets I hold on my Coinbase account total about {$10000.00}. About 1 week ago I sent Coinbase an email advising them that I would file a formal complaint with CFPB.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation