Consumer complaint received 2024-04-20
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Confusing or missing disclosures — 
Company: Coinbase, Inc. ()

In XXXX of XXXX, I received a " NOTICE OF ACCOUNT CLOSURE '' from Coinbase. I was unable to contest this, given that customer support was unavailable for customers with closed accounts. At the time, I had a balance of approximately {$0.00} with Coinbase. I actively use their exchange services which I believe to be superior to other exchanges. 

My account was subsequently closed later that year, still with no way of contesting the account closure. I was not given any reason why my account was closed, and I did not engage in prohibited use or violated the Terms of Service. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that Coinbase had released a new feature, the XXXX XXXX feature, that allowed users who had mistakenly sent Cryptocurrency to the wrong network ( unsupported by Coinbase ) to obtain such Cryptocurrency, with a ~5 % fee. 

I contacted Coinbase in the hopes of using this service. In correspondence with them in Case # XXXX, they told me that they had unlocked my account, and thus allowing me to use the XXXX XXXX service. However, I was unable to pay the 5 % fee ( amounting to approximately {$500.00} of the {$10000.00} that was due to be recovered ) as I could not deposit Cryptocurrency into my unlocked Coinbase account. 

After a month of contacting them, I was told that I was unable to use the XXXX XXXX service, in contradiction to what was said previously. In the same email, I was told that since my account has less than {$5.00}, I was no longer eligible to use the XXXX XXXX service despite Coinbase not letting me deposit money into the account. 

Coinbase stated that " accounts holding less than {$5.00} that are no longer eligible are subject to closure according to our compliance obligations. While unable to directly assist in this case, I hope explaining our policies provides transparency. '' Since the beginning of my relationship with Coinbase, I was not made aware of ( despite reading Coinbase 's Terms and Conditions ) the {$5.00} minimum balance requirement to maintain an open account. Subsequently, I was also unable to find any information on their help center regarding this {$5.00} requirement. There was no reasonable expectation for me to expect there to be a {$5.00} requirement to maintain an account with Coinbase, as I had made all reasonable efforts to ensure that I complied with Coinbase 's Terms and Conditions. Had I known that there was a {$5.00} requirement, I would have maintained a balance in excess of {$5.00}. 

Coinbase then linked me to an article in their Help Center under a category that was not publicly accessible or displayed anywhere. The article ( https : //help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/managing-my-account/other/offboarded-escheatment-ineligible ) was only accessible via direct link, which was not made available to me at any point during my relationship with Coinbase. No warning emails were sent, and thus there was no way any customer would have any knowledge of this arbitrary requirement set by Coinbase without my knowledge or agreement. 

I have suffered significant losses because of Coinbase 's inability to disclose changes in their Terms and Conditions ; as a result of this account closure, I was unable to recover the {$10000.00} that I rightfully owned. Subtracting the fee associated with the XXXX XXXX service, I have suffered a net loss of {$9500.00} from Coinbase 's malpractice.