Bitcoin Forum

Up to now I've thought that Coinbase was legitimate. Some said on other threads that Coinbase has been known to steal funds or suspend accounts. Can anyone give an explanation to this or give their own story about this?

The truth is coinbase is a legitimate company. They get a lot of shit from some bitcoiners because they vocally support larger bitcoin blocks, and then added ethereum support. Like all exchanges, they suck in some regards (mandatory know your customer stuff, they shut down your account if they find out you are doing something against their terms of service or using bitcoins for gambling/darkmarkets etc. It sucks, but they and all the other exchanges are legally required to do this. I've never heard an accusation against them for stealing funds, and strongly doubt they ever have or will. (Also like all exchanges don't leave money or bitcoin on them)

I have heard of them suspending accounts for people who are gamblers, apparently, gambling is against their T.O.S, I have also heard rumors of them locking accounts of those who are suspected of trading on black market sites and handing information over to the FBI, but that is just speculation.

this person had their account blocked: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1289574.0

Thanks for the reference link. I checked it and it appears they may no longer be blocking the removal of finds (just stopping buying or selling, according to that).
I think that means that they are probably not unlawful or freezing money directly.

thousands of people out there are dying to nail coinbase so if they had genuinely done something evil I think we'd know by now. I don't get why there's so much hate for them but they have to follow every rule to the letter or their business is toast, and i'd hate to guess how many rules they have to follow and how many authorities are breathing down their neck.

most of those rules don't agree with what the average bitcoiner believes or wants to get up to. the obvious ones are gambling and buying to sell on localbitcoins or similar. both of them are gonna cause problems for coinbase as that implicates them in stuff that's not legal.

I think it's pretty clear by now what they're gonna reject or accept. it's up to the user to decide if that works for them or not.

Coinbase is a legitimate company and gambling is not against their TOS and as regards locking of users account, this often happens when the user cannot authorize the computer he is using and the sms stuffs hence we all understand it is because of their high security layers.

if you don't use to gamble, I think they are safe and for buying bitcoin at there by using a credit card the fee are not as high.

They're a bank. I don't feel that what they do is wrong, I just recommend against using CB.