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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase randomly locks users out of their accounts for months at a time causing them to lose funds, and even erased accounts in their entirety, a new class action lawsuit claims.
The nationwide class action lawsuit was filed in California on June 4 by lead Plaintiffs Michael Leone, Joseph Treseder, Travis Reece, David Beavers, Fazal Us Saboor Ali, and Keisha Pinkey. The group of Coinbase users allege the company locked them out of their accounts for no reason, stopping them from trading, investing or selling their funds, and even deleted accounts completely.
Coinbase users can store their cryptocurrencies in a digital “wallet,” as well as buy, sell, spend, and trade cryptocurrency. According to the claim, the company proclaims that it is “building the cryptoeconomy – a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled by crypto.” It also says that it is a regulated and fully compliant entity, registered with the United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as a Money Services Business.
However, the groups of cryptocurrency traders say that in reality the company prevents its users from accessing their accounts and funds for arbitrary reasons and arbitrary amounts of time, stopping them from investing, spending, saving, earning, and using, or even withdrawing their funds. The lack of access resulted in the group’s accounts losing value, the class action lawsuit alleges.
Leone, who had $15,000 in his account, was locked out of his account in January for no reason, and despite sending more than 100 emails he has never received a response from the company, the claim states. Treseder, who had $30,000 in his account, was locked out arbitrarily in January and has failed to regain access to his account despite numerous attempts. Reece deposited previously-owned cryptocurrency into his Coinbase account, and after making the deposit he logged into his account to find it had disappeared, according to the class action lawsuit. He is yet to access his funds.
Beavers says that he was locked out of his account after contesting a “mistaken” $100 fee. According to the claim, he has been locked out of his account for several months despite attempts to contact Coinbase and regain access. Ali has been locked out of his account since January for no reason, despite filing numerous complaints to Coinbase, the claim states. And Pinkey says that she has been locked out of her account, which had $6,000, since February and has not been able to regain access.
Those who were eventually able to access accounts found that the value of their cryptocurrency had dropped significantly in the interim and some had no ability to sell or use the cryptocurrency held in their Coinbase accounts, the class action lawsuit alleges.
“In some circumstances, Putative Class Members’ accounts were erased in their entirety,” the claim states.
“Further, Defendant failed to provide Putative Class Members any explanation for where their cryptocurrency went or any remedy to retrieve it, causing significant losses.”
The claim says that Coinbase’s actions have resulted in irreparable harm to the traders.
The traders want to represent anyone in the United States who was locked out of their Coinbase account. They are suing for negligence, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and fiduciary duty, conversion and violation of consumer laws. They seek certification of the Class, damages, disgorgement, injunctive relief, interest, legal fees, and a jury trial.
This isn’t the first class action lawsuit to hit the world of cryptocurrency. In January, Ripple was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging the illegal sale of cryptocurrency. The case was one of a number that came after the Securities and Exchange Commission lodged a legal action against the payment processing company.
Do you have a Coinbase account? Have you ever been locked out of that account for no reason? Tell us about your experience in the comments section!
The traders are represented by Kevin Mahoney, Katherine J. Odenbreit, and Nicole G. Blanco of Mahoney Law Group, APC.
The Coinbase Account Access Class Action Lawsuit is Leone, et al., v Coinbase, Inc. et al., Case No. 3:21-cv-04286 in the U.S. District Court Northern District of California.
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369 thoughts onCoinbase Randomly Locks Users Out of Accounts for Months, Deletes Funds, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges
I was locked out of my account on coinbase since June 2022 after attempting to use ethereum to trade on mt5. I have had coinbase for years and its sick that they want to lock me out of my account while I am hemorrhaging funds. I lost nearly 4k and I want my money back. Sign me up for this class action for breach of contract and negligence.
Been locked out of my account. Went to withdraw my funds to close my account and they won’t let me send funds or connect to a bank account. I contacted support to have them close my account entirely, I can’t access any of my history etc and now I’m unable to get my money out. They’re offering me the ability to donate the funds or I lose access after 40 days. This company is a high tech scam that is stealing money from people. Absolutely bullshit.
I got locked out of my account in early 2022 of about $7,500. Someone changed my email and phone number on the account since when I call Coinbase they say the don’t recognize me as a customer. I have been calling for months and have not gotten through to a live person to even open a claim. my online claim submission with Coinbase apparently has gotten ignored. I would like to join any possible class action lawsuit.
Im locked out of my account as we speak. After numerous contacts with support and doing everything theve requested of me for verification they finally just locked me out of my account entirely as opposed to before they locked it just freezing everything in my account after they said i had until march to verify my i.d. before any interuptions to my account came… when i complained about them freezing my assets and its only january they blocked me.
My coinbase account has been locked for months without any notification or email. Unable to buy or sell. It appears I can still cash out however which I intend to do when the market value goes up. I have reached out 3 times now to support to understand why my buys and sells are disabled. They were unable to provide any information why it had occurred and would have specialists review my account and that I would receive an email with 14 days. Way more then 14 days had passed and no email. I contacted support again and the person was unable to tell me anything except that it appears that in my review their decision was to reject enabling my ability to buy or sell. There was no explanation why this was nor was I notified by email. This second representative said he would send it over for review again and that I should hear back via my email within 4 days. Of course I never heard back. 3rd time reaching out and explaining the absurdity of the experience the representative said I must answer the following questions for them to review my account.
“All you need to provide are your external wallet sends and its:
– Name of the recipient
– Your relationship to the recipient
– Purpose of sending these funds
And answer these questions
Were you directed by a third party to create your account?
Were you directed by a third party to transfer funds?
Does anyone else have access to your account or your credentials?”
I was able to provide only a few of the recipients I have sent to because there is no way I could remember them all when looking at obscure crypto addresses from over a period of years. I explained that and they said then the last recipient you had sent to and your relation to them and the reason for sending. Which that was me sending to another one of my external wallets. They submitted my answers for another review. After the amount of incompetence I have already dealt with I do not expect to hear back from them. Even though this 3rd representative told me I would hear the answer with in 14 days again via my email. I do not know if the user agreement had me agree to having to provide all of the private information on where I sent my crypto to upon request but it certainly felt like an invasion of privacy. it’s good to know that I am not alone in this and it appears Coinbase is not properly running their company. This should not be allowed to happen especially when they are holding such large quantities of peoples money.
Literally in the same situation right now. I have around $600 and use it hear and have been on “restriction” for weeks. It’s such a small amount I can’t imagine it would catch anyone’s attention. I’ve attempted 3 times now, 45 minutes with their “specialists?” And they won’t tell me what specifically is causing this because of legal security reason or whatever other serious words they use. Won’t tell me why my own account is restricted for security reasons.
Same here for my account un the UK, I had to ask then to donate my coins and delete my account. It seems that the supports people don’t even know why this happened to me and they just copy paste the same text every time I try to contact them.
How do I sign up for this class action in 2019 I had Bitcoin in coinbase I went into prison when I got out in 2020 I was logged I was locked out for over a year I didn’t get back in until 2021 and when I got back in I had no money even though it went from $3,000 a Bitcoin to $70,000 a Bitcoin it shows no money leaving but I do have proof it went in
i had the same thing happen, i was locked out during a big boom phase , value of my account should have been over 40,000.00 when i finally regained access , the boom was over and the cash was not in my account, they also claimed that i had not made deposits that i had proof of. leaving me with a measly 3000.00 out of what should of been 40000.
i have been going through the same thing locked out of my account for months crypto missing and or hacked i keep verifying my idenity over and over and they keep the restriction on the account
I’ve had my Coinbase accounts restricted since July, 2022. I made a transfer that I had made probably 6 or 7 times before and for no reason Coinbase suddenly decided to restrict my account for 2 months. I’ve emailed numerous times and it’s a stock standard reply that they are working on my case. I also tried calling their support line. The people who answer are in India and some of them are incredibly rude and threaten to end the call and report me just for questioning why I can’t access my account and why no action is being made. I’ve never been treated so poorly by any company as Coinbase. I reported the last 2 telephone incidents, but there has been no update on it, nor do I know any more about when I will be able to use my account moving forward. The last email stated that they are still reviewing my account and if I don’ hear back in 7 days, I should contact them again. This whole experience has been awful. I have about $9500 still tied up in my Coinbase account, along with an additional $12000+ in my Coinbase Pro account.
I had my Coinbase account hacked for 3500 in November 2021. I sent many emails and did everything they told me to do only to have them blame my phone. They have now also blocked me out of my Coinbase wallet after I emailed them that u believe this was an inside job.
My phone contains all my banking and credit cards as well as other investment apps , all of which have been safe ! So frustrating!
My husband had a coin base account in his name. Unfortunately he passed away February 1o, 2022. I, as his wife, wanted to close the account. They told me I had to open an account in my name in order to transfer the funds from his account to mine. On February 28th I received an email saying my account was open and ready to use but the funds were not transferred. On March 6th and April 22nd I received emails saying coin base has transferred the money to my account but the funds were not transferred. I had numerous phone calls with customer support and no one could give me an answer. I talked to the fraud department and they sent me to the disputes department. After several weeks they came up with no information. I filed a complaint and went thru their process that took a month and still no answers. Then on August 31st a transfer was made that was 69% less than the last failed transfer. They said there are fluctuations in the market and it will go up and down. If the funds had been transferred when they should have been when I opened the account I would not have lost 69%. Their incompetence caused it. I also asked where was my money during the last 6 months and they said it was credited to my account. I didn’t see anywhere that it was credited to my account. This company is not being run right and getting away with it. I am a widow not and could have used that money but coin base’s incompetence made it so I have a fraction of what I could have had. They shouldn’t be in business if they can’t run it right. Please give me some information about the class action lawsuit I’d like to be a part of it if I can afford it.