Coinbase account closure?

[henryreardon]

Yesterday I logged into Coinbase for the first time in about 4 months and was met with this message:

Unfortunately we have had to close your Coinbase account. Before your account can be closed, you will need to withdraw your bitcoin to an external wallet and any other funds to an attached bank account. Please be sure to delete any references to bitcoin addresses generated by Coinbase, as bitcoin sent to those addresses will not be retrievable once the account is closed. If you have any questions you may contact us at support@coinbase.com.

Transfer 0.00007033 BTC out of your Bitcoin accounts
Enter a Bitcoin address to which we will sweep all of the funds from these accounts

I wrote them an email at the support address but have not heard back yet. 

Anybody else experience this?  I am suspicious, possibilities I am worried about:
1. This is an elaborate scam of some sort
2. USG is cracking down on Coinbase
3. Coinbase is having internal issues and about to shutter like Mt. Gox

?

[ranochigo]

Mt Gox was insolvent. If coinbase allows you to withdraw successfully, they aren't insolvent. Have you violated any of their policy? Are you using their service solely for the wallet or you also use it as an exchange?

[henryreardon]

Well I tried to withdraw the tiny amount of BTC I have there but I kept getting error messages, despite being certain that I was doing everything right.

I have no violated their TOS as far as I know.

The bulk of my coins as in cold/paper storage i.e. offline.  I only use Coinbase as an exchange.

[Kprawn]

Banks do the same kind of thing with "inactive" or "dormant" accounts. I sometimes wonder if this is not just to encourage people to use it, to generate income from fees or if it has

something to do with financial regulations like AML/KYC. Whatever the reason, it still is a pain in the ass. Did you verify your account, or did you probably have difficulty to this?

Here is a topic on the subject --> https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=500704.0

[maokoto]

I cannot be sure, but to me the problem seems to be that you hold a very small amount of Bitcoin there / use it too little and they just want to save resources.

[henryreardon]

Both excellent points -- dormant account, very little coins in there.  Ok so no reason to be suspicious then?

I will post their reply here as soon as I get it

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Coinbase does not close accounts because of inactivity, but for violating their terms of service. Check their list of prohibited activities to see if you violated the User Agreement. For example, you cannot use Coinbase to buy bitcoin and then sell on LocalBitcoin, or send bitcoin from a gambling site to Coinbase and sell for fiat.

[henryreardon]

Coinbase does not close accounts because of inactivity, but for violating their terms of service.

That makes sense, but I did not violate any of those TOSs.  I'm just a regular Joe trying to make a buck.

[RustyNomad]

Agree, I've had a Coinbase account for close on a year if not more, don't think I ever used it or might have once to send some funds as a test.

Account still active with no problems. So don't think it was closed due to inactivity, if so mine must have been closed ages ago.

[BitcoinNewsMagazine]

Coinbase does not close accounts because of inactivity, but for violating their terms of service.

That makes sense, but I did not violate any of those TOSs.  I'm just a regular Joe trying to make a buck.

Please let us know when you hear back from customer service, may have been an honest mistake.

[Cuidler]

Coinbase does not close accounts because of inactivity, but for violating their terms of service.

That makes sense, but I did not violate any of those TOSs.  I'm just a regular Joe trying to make a buck.

When I saw this

Transfer 0.00007033 BTC out of your Bitcoin accounts
Enter a Bitcoin address to which we will sweep all of the funds from these accounts[/i]

I guess you use coinbase account to receive many small amounts of Bitcoins from faucets. This would make sence for closing the Coinbase account

[bitcoinmar]

Coinbase does not close accounts because of inactivity, but for violating their terms of service.

That makes sense, but I did not violate any of those TOSs.  I'm just a regular Joe trying to make a buck.

When I saw this

Transfer 0.00007033 BTC out of your Bitcoin accounts
Enter a Bitcoin address to which we will sweep all of the funds from these accounts[/i]

I guess you use coinbase account to receive many small amounts of Bitcoins from faucets. This would make sence for closing the Coinbase account

No they never close account for receiving many amounts of bitcoins from faucets because I am using this for long time and my all payouts from faucets I have never any problem

[franky1]

12 posts in regards to a 3cent account balance
.00001000=$0.0039~ now
.00007033=$0.00274~ now

2cents and 74 decimals of a cent.

i think chilling out is cheaper then wasting time arguing about such a small amount

[croato]

I am using Coinbase account for small transactions and as pocket money on my android phone. Never had problems, just their transactions can be slow from time to time. Most possibly you get from or send coins to some gambling site. They ban for that cause of their regulation.

[henryreardon]

i think chilling out is cheaper then wasting time arguing about such a small amount

I have a decent amount coins in cold storage, I'm considering cashing in some at some point through Coinbase (which is linked to my bank account).  That is why it is important that my Coinbase account be active and stable.

[henryreardon]

See Coinbase response below.
1. I never got emails from the on 2/16 or 2/23
2. If there were a "high volume of transactions" that something funny is going on b/c that was not me

I will respond to her and answer her questions and report back

NOV 05, 2015 | 09:41AM PST
Danielle replied:
Hi [anonymized],

Danielle here, with Coinbase Compliance. On February 16, 2015, we sent you a request for additional information regarding your Coinbase account as part of a routine compliance review. We followed up on our request on February 23rd, 2015, but did not receive a response. Accordingly, your Coinbase account was restricted pending your response.

I have gone ahead and copied our request below, for your convenience. If you would like to continue using our service, please respond at your earliest convenience:

During a routine review, we noticed your account has conducted a high volume of transactions. Please know that we are required by law to periodically review high volume accounts as part of being a regulated Money Service Business.

In order to assist in this process, please provide the following information within seven (7) days to avoid disruption of service to your account:

- Please identify the email addresses of any additional Coinbase accounts you may own
- Briefly describe the primary use case for your Coinbase account
- Describe the source of the bitcoin being deposited into your account that was not purchased through Coinbase
- Identify the source of funds for your purchases of bitcoin
- Elaborate on the nature of your outgoing transfers and what service(s) they may be related to

If you would like to discontinue service, an easy way to clear out that last bit of money without having to deal with fees would be to donate your remaining bitcoin to a non profit that accepts bitcoin such as Khan Academy. Kham Academy is a non-profit aimed at providing a free, world-class education to all. To donate, direct your remaining bitcoin to donate@khanacademy.org via the Send/Request page. Please specify the amount you’re sending in BTC, rather than USD. For example, if you have 0.00009732 BTC in your account, and currently that equals $0.06, enter ‘0.00009732’ in the BTC field rather than ‘0.06’ in the USD field. Once your account’s balance is at 0, head back to https://www.coinbase.com/settings/security_settings and scroll to the bottom to close your account.

I hope that helps! Should you have any further questions or need anything else, we are here to help.

Thanks [anonymized].

Respectfully,
Danielle | Coinbase Compliance

[mirana12345]

Wasn't it the case that coinbase made similar closures to accounts that were used in transfers to localbitcoins ? I think i was reading something about it not so long ago.
btw the things that they are asking of you are insane. It almost looks more like an investigation against you, rather than a simple verification.

[bitcoin revo]

2. If there were a "high volume of transactions" that something funny is going on b/c that was not me

What's your bitcoin address? You could always check that and see if there were transactions that you don't remember doing, particular a large amount of transactions in a short period of time before the closure.

[henryreardon]

btw the things that they are asking of you are insane. It almost looks more like an investigation against you, rather than a simple verification.

I answered them as honestly as I could.  Will let you know when they reply.

[henryreardon]

What's your bitcoin address? You could always check that and see if there were transactions that you don't remember doing, particular a large amount of transactions in a short period of time before the closure.

Good idea, where can I find that?  If it's anywhere in my Coinbase account I cannot access that as it is locked down