Consumer complaint received 2026-05-05 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Virtual currency
Issue: Money was not available when promised — 
Company: Coinbase, Inc.
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent XXXX Virtuals Protocol ( VIRTUAL ) tokens on the Base network to my Coinbase deposit address at contract XXXX. The transaction hash is XXXX and is verifiable on BaseScan. At the time of deposit, VIRTUAL was not yet a supported asset on Coinbase, so the tokens were not credited. I contacted Coinbase Support immediately. On XX/XX/XXXX via DM with @ CoinbaseSupport on XXXX, and again on XX/XX/XXXX via email from help @ coinbase.com, Coinbase Support told me in writing : " In the future, Coinbase may begin to provide support for this asset. If that happens, you'll automatically receive these funds in your account. '' Based on this written commitment from two separate official Coinbase channels, I waited. Coinbase has since added VIRTUAL as a fully supported asset on Base. Contrary to Coinbase 's XX/XX/XXXX written commitment, I did not automatically receive the funds when listing occurred. The XXXX VIRTUAL deposit ( currently ~ {$17000.00} ; previously ~ {$60000.00} at peak during the period of stranding ) remains stranded on-chain at the Coinbase-controlled deposit contract. I attempted to use Coinbase 's self-service Asset Recovery tool. It returns " Transaction not found '' because the receiving address is a smart contract rather than an externally-owned account, which the tool can not process. On XX/XX/XXXX, I conducted a test by sending 2 VIRTUAL on Base to the same deposit address ( test transaction XXXX ). The contract auto-forwarded the deposit to Coinbase 's VIRTUAL custody wallet ( labeled " Coinbase 36 '' on BaseScan ) and Coinbase credited 2 VIRTUAL to my account within minutes. This conclusively demonstrates : ( 1 ) the deposit address is correctly mapped to my account in Coinbase 's infrastructure, ( 2 ) VIRTUAL deposits at this address are processed and credited correctly through Coinbase 's standard systems, and ( 3 ) the only obstacle to recovering the XXXX VIRTUAL is that the auto-forwarding logic does not retroactively process historical deposits made before the asset was supported. Coinbase has the technical and operational capability to recover the tokens. I have contacted Coinbase Support repeatedly : - XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX DM ) : Coinbase promised automatic credit if asset became supported. - XX/XX/XXXX ( email from help @ coinbase.com ) : Same written promise repeated " you'll automatically receive these funds in your account '' when listing happens. - XX/XX/XXXX ( chat, case # XXXX ) : Agent declined to escalate to engineering. - XX/XX/XXXX ( phone ) : A second agent declined to escalate, said to call back in 57 business days, no specific timeline. - XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX DM with @ CoinbaseSupport ) : Team correctly diagnosed the issue, but stated they " can not guarantee or perform a manual sweep or credit for that older unsupported deposit '' directly contradicting the XX/XX/XXXX written commitment. They said the case was being escalated internally. - XX/XX/XXXX ( formal complaint, acknowledged by " XXXX, Consumer Complaint Supervisor '' ) : Receipt confirmed; cited up to 45 business days for response. XX/XX/XXXX ( email from agent " XXXX, '' case # XXXX ) : Agent reviewed the wrong transaction ( the 2 VIRTUAL test, not the XXXX historical deposit ) and incorrectly attempted to close the case as resolved. I corrected the error and requested re-routing the same day. The receiving contract is part of standard Coinbase deposit infrastructure. According to BaseScan, it is one of XXXX contracts deployed by Coinbase with identical bytecode. The address is publicly tagged " Coinbase : Deposit Address '' on BaseScan. The deposit-to-account mapping exists in Coinbase 's internal records , as confirmed by my successful test deposit being credited to my specific account. The tokens are demonstrably in Coinbase 's possession on-chain. There is no third-party involvement, no fraud risk, no chargeback risk, and no AML concern . Coinbase made a written commitment in XX/XX/XXXX twice, across two official channels that I would automatically receive the funds upon listing. They have failed to honor that commitment, and have refused to recover the deposit despite their demonstrated technical capability. The continued custody of these tokens by Coinbase, without resolution, has exposed me to significant market risk on assets I can not access losing approximately {$43000.00} in value from peak during the period of stranding. I am asking the CFPB to investigate Coinbase 's failure to honor its written commitment to credit historical deposits upon asset listing, its failure to recover this deposit despite demonstrated technical capability, and the pattern of opaque and unresponsive customer service across multiple support channels.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief