Consumer complaint received 2023-11-11
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Money was not available when promised — 
Company: Coinbase, Inc. (AK)

This complaint concerns Coinbase, from XX/XX/XXXX to present. 

I have had a Coinbase account for years, although I have not been very active. From XXXX, I was steadily uploading US dollars from a verified bank account to Coinbase, XXXX about {$22000.00}. Coinbase has previously announced that it was possible to trade daily amounts of {$25000.00} ( https : //www.coinbase.com/blog/buy-and-sell-immediately-and-higher-daily-limits ), and I was depositing daily amounts of approximately {$3000.00} after an initial {$7500.00} deposit using ACH transfer. I also verified before each deposit that Coinbase would make the money available within seven days. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Coinbase that my account was on a withdrawal hold " for an additional 30 days, '' although I later learned that it was actually frozen for nearly seven weeks. Email text included below : **Withdrawal Hold placed on your Coinbase account We have increased the holding time before you can withdraw your funds by 30 business days. This is meant to protect you against fraud by ensuring that you authorized this purchase. No action is required on your part. 

If you believe this is in error, please contact us by visiting XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX Losing access to {$22000.00} for nearly two months was unacceptable to me, especially as I needed it much more quickly to pay for a planned medical expense ( which I informed Coinbase by email ). I contacted customer service, who asked me to complete an additional verification form and promised that it would be reviewed. However, since days passed without further action and I needed to regain access to the money, I contacted customer service again and asked if it would be possible to withdraw my money from Coinbase back to my verified account, especially since it remained in US dollars. I also pointed out that since the withdrawal hold was ostensibly for my own good, to protect me from fraud, there should be no problem redepositing it in a bank account that Coinbase itself had already verified. Additionally, of course, I had neither asked for nor wanted " fraud '' protection. 

I kept asking each day for help resolving what should have been a simple problem, but things got more complex : - I was only directed to the formal internal complaint line on XX/XX/XXXX, three days after the problem started. The internal complaint process, I was informed, would take up to 45 business days- in other words, longer than my withdrawal hold. 
- Coinbase reps offered conflicting explanations for the hold. It was variously : - - For my own protection, and to keep me from making an investment that I might regret. 
- - Because ACH transactions were not available immediately, and that I should have either made a wire transfer or checked the time when the money would have been available before depositing ( I did, and in any case the email that an additional hold had been placed on the account meant that processing time was not the explanation ). 
- - Because my bank was still processing the money ( I confirmed with my bank on XXXX that the funds had been transferred ) - - It was something the system did automatically, and no one at Coinbase had any control over it. 
- - The hold wasn't at Coinbase at all ; since it was external, no one at Coinbase had any control over it. 
- - The hold was under review, and someone at Coinbase would be able to remove it once they had checked my account. 

I also offered repeatedly to show additional identity verification or any other information that they needed, but was turned down every time. 

After several days of contacting Coinbase repeatedly, I was asked to wait and inquire about the review status on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, to give Coinbase additional time, I reached out again, only to be told that my account was still under review with no change. 

As a footnote, I learned too late that Coinbase has pulled this trick before, freezing accounts at random for months at a time, especially over the {$20000.00} mark ( see here XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX