Consumer complaint received 2023-09-13
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
the cryptocurrency exchange coinbase has been intentionally or unintentionally accepting XXXX based tokens that the coinbase exchange does not offer support for at addresses that the coinbase exchange holds the private keys for ; it is impossible to access those funds without the private key to the wallet addresses at which those funds are stored. those funds are not returned if the sender tells coinbase that they were sent in error. those funds are inaccessible and essentially lost until coinbase chooses to return them. there could be large sums of cryptocurrency stored at XXXX  based addresses managed by cryptocurrency exchanges that are essentially " stolen '' due to non supported token issues caused by network chain mismatches in which there is no actual loss of tokens. 

how does this happen : you picked the wrong chain when you sent tokens to your exchange account and the exchange doesnt support that token on the chain you picked. now the exchange wont return the tokens and those tokens are trapped at an address that only the exchange can manage. 

coinbase is one of the seven largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. 

an example would be sending usdc coin to coinbase on a network that is not supported. the funds sit in the coinbase account address for which the coinbase exchange holds the private key. coinbase does not return the funds when they are requested even if you tell them the funds were sent in error. the user will get a generic copy paste reply that says the funds were lost. if you look at the blockscan for any of those coinbase addresses it is possible to see that the funds are still located at those addresses. there is no loss of funds. 

a similar situation happened to me where i sent a small amount of XXXXXXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX  ) from the coinbase wallet app to the exchange. the grt was a quest reward for delegating XXXX XXXX  to an XXXX on the coinbase wallet app. it cost me XXXX usd approximately to complete the quest. the reward was XXXX dollars in XXXX XXXX 

the coinbase exchange does not support XXXX XXXX coinbase exchange only supports XXXX XXXX XXXX. i was still able to make the transfer but when i looked for my funds they did not appear in my coinbase account. i looked at XXXX  with the transaction hash and the transaction had completed and the funds were present at the coinbase exchange XXXX XXXX address on the XXXX XXXX... i asked for the funds to be returned to my coinbase wallet app address from where i sent them and after speaking with 7 support agents that has not happened. 

3 support agents told me the funds were permanently lost. another 2 agents told me that the funds would become available in the future after coinbase exchanges adds support for XXXX XXXX the other two agents didnt know a XXXX for a chain of blocks. i mean literally a chain made of blocks. 

my XXXX XXXX  is still trapped at the coinbase exchange address and i can not move it and coinbase will not return it. 

here is the transaction hash for the transfer i am trying to get returned to me XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX i was accidentally transferred XXXXXXXX XXXX ( a cryptocurrency from the coinbase wallet app to my coinbase exchange account ) at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX i have attempted to get help from coinbase several times. 
reference : XXXX reference : XXXX reference : XXXX reference : XXXX copy of an email i sent to coinbase support " no name XXXX XXXX ( XXXX hours ago ) to Coinbase transaction hash : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX i sent XXXX XXXX from the coinbase wallet to my coinbase exchange account which only support XXXX XXXX at this time. the address i sent the grt to is an active wallet address which i would assume is managed by coinbase. i would like to ask that the XXXXXXXX XXXX be sent back to XXXX minus gas fees please reach out to anyone who would be able access the funds at XXXX '' reply from coinbase : " Coinbase Support XXXX ( XXXX hours ago ) to me XXXX XXXX XXXX Thanks for contacting us about your recent attempt to send funds to your Coinbase account. We can help you understand what happened. 

After reviewing the information you provided, it appears this transaction was performed using a blockchain network that is not currently supported for this asset. Since this asset is not supported for this network, the funds did not arrive in your Coinbase account and we do not have the ability to recover these funds. Please note that XXXX is only supported via XXXX and not XXXX. 

We understand that this is a frustrating situation but unfortunately, we do not currently have the ability to recover these funds. In the long term, Coinbase may, in the future, support this crypto via the network you used. If thats ever the case, youll automatically receive these funds in your account. 

To avoid future transaction issues and loss of funds, we recommend that you send a very small amount of crypto as a test transaction before committing to a larger transaction. Additionally, please always ensure that you're receiving and sending crypto via a supported network to a compatible wallet address. 

For the most up-to-date information about our supported cryptocurrencies, please visit our Explore page here : https : //www.coinbase.com/explore Regards, Coinbase Support thread : XXXX : : '' the funds are under the management of coinbase. coinbase has the private key to the address and refuses to return the funds. i can not retrieve them myself.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation