Christina Spicer  |  August 4, 2021

Category: Legal News

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Coinbase wallet
(Photo Credit: Ascannio/Shutterstock)

Coinbase Wallets Class Action Overview:

  • Who: A pair of Coinbase wallet holders locked out of their crypto accounts filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday.  
  • Why: The cryptocurrency exchange company allegedly froze them and other account holders out of their Coinbase wallets or allowed them to be hacked.  
  • Where: The class action lawsuit was launched against Coinbase Global, Inc and Coinbase, Inc in California federal court.  

A pair of cryptocurrency users say their Coinbase wallets were either hacked or frozen without warning and their pleas to release their accounts so they could access funds went unheeded by Coinbase Global, Inc and Coinbase, Inc, in a class action lawsuit lodged against the companies in California federal court Tuesday.  

Lead plaintiffs, Cristian Kelly and Kenneth Thall, want to represent others who lost access to their Coinbase wallets. They say Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, misled them about the security of its services and “real-time” access to funds stored with the company.  

Coinbase users can store their cryptocurrencies in a digital “wallet,” as well as buy, sell, spend, and trade cryptocurrency. 

Coinbase Wallets Hacked, Frozen Without Warning 

Kelly claims that his Coinbase wallet — containing approximately $18,000 in Ethereum cryptocurrency — was potentially hacked when he called the company to add a feature to his account. He says that instead of helping him get to the bottom of the situation, Coinbase froze him out of his account for months.  

Thall alleges that he was alerted by his bank that his Coinbase wallet containing about $8,000 in Bitcoin may have been hacked. Thall says that when he brought up his concerns to Coinbase, he was similarly locked out of his account for an extended period of time.  

Kelly and Thall say that they decided to store their cryptocurrency in Coinbase wallets based on the companies’ promise to provide “customers a secure way to purchase, store, and transact in crypto assets” and provided “24/7/365” access to their funds.  

Instead, the plaintiffs say that they were locked out of their Coinbase wallets for extended periods of time. 

“Because of the extreme volatility of cryptocurrencies’ value – with freefalls of 40% within 24 hours not unheard of – the inability to access an account to sell, buy, or trade cryptocurrency leads to severe financial loss,” alleges the class action lawsuit. “Making matters worse, Coinbase fails to timely respond to customer pleas for support and help, and also fails to preserve and safeguard customer funds as it promises.” 

Indeed, Kelly and Thall each claim that the crypto company ignored their repeated requests to unfreeze their Coinbase wallets. They want to represent consumers nationwide who signed on with the rapidly growing crypto exchange company.  

The plaintiffs are seeking damages on behalf of Coinbase wallet holders, along with a court order forcing the company to unfreeze accounts.  

Coinbase has found itself in legal hot water recently, with another group of Coinbase wallet holders lodging a class action lawsuit in California federal court in June. Last year, the company paid out nearly $1 million to settle claims that they aided and abetted the theft of Cryptsy cryptocurrency

Do you have a Coinbase wallet? Have you ever been hacked or locked out of that account for no reason? Tell us about your experience in the comments section! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Timothy G. Blood, Thomas J. O’Reardon II, and James M. Davis fo Blood Hurst & O’Reardon, LLP and James M. Evangelista, David J. Worley, Kristi Stahnke McGregor, and Leslie G. Toran of Evangelista Worely, LLC.  

The Coinbase Wallets Class Action Lawsuit is Kelly, et al. v. Coinbase Global, Inc., et al., Case No. 3:21-cv-06010 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California San Francisco Division.


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167 thoughts onCoinbase Wallets Hacked, Frozen Without Warning, Claims Class Action Lawsuit

  1. JENNIFER GMINDER says:

    MY Coinbase account was locked. Someone hacked my account and bought over 8000 dollars in Bitcoin. They were able to access by bank account somehow and buy Bitcoin. My bank could do nothing about it and I had to close my account. After reporting it to Coinbase they locked my account and were of no help. Needless to say I am out 8000 dollars by a scammer.

  2. margaret Cova says:

    Coinbase account hacked for 3.9 bitcoin on 3/26/23.

  3. james says:

    i had 2 accounts with coinbase they locked me out of both, 1500 and 2000 can anybody help with this?, im willing to be added to any class action

  4. Steve Brunsink says:

    I just am in the process of loosing $32,000 in my wallet due to not finishing a HGT Lucky Event. I signed up for a $100k plan and I was not able to come up with the $68,000 balance. They now have frozen my account and if I don’t finish the event they will seize my money and donate it to a charity. I begged them to explain the if there were any consequences and they never told me this would happen.
    What can I do?

  5. Pari B Sheth says:

    I have lost 248k to a yield farming scam through my coinbase wallet

  6. Joe Thomas says:

    I was hacked for $1400 and would love to be involved in one of these class action suits. I have gone through their formal process like I am supposed to and was told that there is nothing that they can do to replace my money. I am in California.

  7. Donna Stutzman says:

    My husband had a coin base account in his name. He unfortunately passed away on February 10, 2022. I, as his wife wanted to close the account. I was told I had to open an account in my name. On February 28th I received an email saying my account was opened and ready to use but no funds were transferred. On March 6th I received an email that said funds were transferred to my account but there wasn’t any funds transferred. I made many phone calls and no one knew anything. On April 22nd I received another email saying the funds were transferred into my account but there were no funds transferred. I talked to the fraud department and they sent me to the disputes department and they were going to investigate which after 2 weeks produced nothing. Then I filed a complaint and that process took a month to complete with no results. Then 6 months after my account was opened I received a transfer that was 72% less that what I would have had if the money was transferred when the account was opened. I asked them where has the money been for 6 months and they said it was credited to your account. I didn’t see anywhere that it was credited to my account. Now I am a widow and needed that money and because of the incompetency of coin base I am out of that money and there was no explanation the whole time about where the money was.

  8. Max Elghandour says:

    my story is much worst I invested 800,000 in a contract that was supposed to be for a week to earn double profits and a 250,000 reward, when the contract ended they never returned the funds but explained that I need to pay 32% tax or deposit an additional 187,240 to unlock my smart contract and get my money. no one believes that this real and believes it is a total fraud. in the process of contacting the FBI

    1. Pari B Sheth says:

      Can you provide more details. As an attorney I am dealing with similar cases

    2. Steve Brunsink says:

      Let me know how it turns out. This has to be stopped! How do we get involved with this Class Action?

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