Consumer complaint received 2019-04-20
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: OR
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
On XXXX I wanted to send all of my Cryptocurrency back from XXXX XXXX over to my Coinbase wallet. In my XXXX account I was currently holding {$3300.00} dollars worth of Bitcoin Cash. I went into to Coinbase to retrieve the address to send my current holdings on XXXX over to Coinbase. I copied the address and went back into to XXXX XXXX and pasted the address in to withdraw my Cryptocurrency and send it over to Coinbase which was the receiving end.

I waited a few hours and figured the transaction was complete. When u checked my balance in Coinbase I only had {$2.00} dollars. I went in and checked XXXX and compared addresses and noticed that I selected a bitcoin address. I therefore, accidentally sent Bitcoin Cash to. Bitcoin address. After learning this I immediately sent XXXX XXXX a support ticket and I also sent a support ticket to Coinbase as well. 

XXXX XXXX reached out to me via email and explained that only the receiving end would be able to help me at this time due to it was sent to their address ( wallet ). I then completed another support ticket with Coinbase and explained what had happened and provided them with the XXXX XXXX  and the date. 

Coinbase support reached back out to me via email and explained that my ticket has been escalated and a specialist was currently working on my case # XXXX. The agent from Coinbase stated it could take 5 to 7 business days to complete the investigation. I have sent in a support ticket once or even twice a day about this same issue. 

I will not be out of pocket {$3300.00} I guarantee that much. 

Both Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash share the exact same Offical Logos which is confusing to not just me but thousands of people. I have read many complaints on this issue via XXXX search. 

Coinbase states that Hi XXXX, Coinbase does not support transactions where one cryptocurrency is sent to the address of a different cryptocurrency. This type of confusion can occur when cryptocurrencies share identical address formats, such as Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. 

While the two cryptocurrencies may each have identical addresses, they are separate blockchains and the shared address will have a different transaction history depending on which blockchain is being used. To see a list of the addresses previously used, please visit your addresses page here : https : //www.coinbase.comXXXX. For more information on the differences between BTC and BCH, please visit our Bitcoin Cash FAQ here : XXXX XXXX   XXXX? XXXX. 

Using the same exact logo should be banned by the government because Bitcoin can easily be mistaken for Bitcoin Cash and vise Versa.

Onl

y Coinbase holds the private keys to these wallets and are the only entity who is able to retrieve the funds which are now stuck in the bitcoin address. If a wrong address is accidentally used the transaction should fail and return your money. Per Coinbase sen
ding Bitcoin Cash to a Bitcoin address will result in permanent loss.???? Seriously? So we as the customer are out of money because of a flawed system?

Banks would never allow this to happen. They have saf

eguards set in place. Coinbase wants to take over the banking industry which will never happened because this market is highly flawed especially if peopl
e can loss their money by a minor mistake.

Coinbase also states on their website that they are The most trusted Cryptocurrency site.

People will not trust anything that can easily result is loss of money for in this case fraud or scam you from your money since they hold the private keys to the wallets and they only have the power to retrieve lost money.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation