Coinbase account closure, they don't allow me to pay out 40k EUR

[Petersta]

Hello,

I am not really 'community person' or forum user but this time I am kinda lost and don't really know what to do. I run a small crypto business that I don't want to disclose here to not be blamed for "free advertising" Basically what we do is we're selling cryptocurrency to end users as middleman.

We're doing things according to the book, incuding user ID verification (through Veriff), sms verification (nexmo) and others. We were using verified Coinbase Prime account as liquidity provider. That means that we completed their full business onboarding and extended KYC. We had to send them our risk/aml policies and other things they requested. They got to know how our business is running and accepted it. After around 2 weeks we got approval form them. Everything worked just fine, business was running.

In the beginning of September out of the sudden they sent us account closure notice. This turned business upside down as we had to find new liquidity provider very fast. Eventually we have managed to do so but it costed us losing 3 business days of operations and some money lost in the process. Of course they did not provide any reason of blocking us, they have never send us any warning of wrongdoings, whatsoever. But this is not the worst.

Few hours before closing the account, they just booked my deposit on 30.000 EUR. This, plus other remaining balance that I had, was total 40.000 EUR that I should be able to withdraw. The problem was that when I logged in to my account to pay out the money, they were showing my EUR balance as 0 EUR, as it was cleared out already! I wrote to customer support to ask why it shows 0 EUR balance and never recieved any answer from them. Instead, they blocked entirely access to my account (message "account temporarily suspended, contact customer support") so right now I cannot even pull any reports from them for the transactions that I've done in the past.

Since then I wrote them 3 more messages on customer support and I have not recieved any reply yet. It's lots of money for us but I feel like ant fighting a giant. They completely don't care about us, don't even give us a courtesy of giving an answer like "case is in progress, we need more time" or something like that. NOTHING!

I am writing this here to see if there is more people having similar issues and eventually maybe some of you have an idea what else can I do in my current situation.

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[gentlemand]

Hmm. I had no idea that Coinbase allowed reselling at all.

The two most common options for gaining attention will be tweeting about it and tweeting them and getting on r/bitcoin and starting a thread there. Everyone hates Coinbase so it might get good visibility and it might spur them into action.

[audaciousbeing]

Reading through, I can understand the frustration you are going through and the annoying thing is the fact that no one is providing an explanation. If you have complied with all of their rules with the KYC, I think they owe you an explanation as to why there is an embargo on your account. Even banks, if they place a lien on your account, they might not reach out to you but the moment you get to the bank either physically or online, they provide a response or clarification when necessary which boost confidence in the industry and if they don't there is always the regulatory body to report to that would take it up to ensure the issue is resolved.

Just like the poster above have said, businesses in the crypto industry who felt so big and when entreaties fails understand one language which is ''Call Out'' on social media and that is your tool that you can use now. The amount of money might be small to them but to a business like yours, its a lifeline that cannot be toyed with. I only wished there is a regulatory body that can ensure the right thing is done by these set of maxi-companies in crypto.

[stomachgrowls]

How long youve been waiting for their supports reply?

If it do takes too long already then you can spam out of their social media mediums. https://support.coinbase.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1766604

[jrrsparkles]

If you want to withdraw all the balances in the coinbase account and never want to use their service means you can request for account cancellation here : https://www.coinbase.com/settings/cancel by doing this you can withdraw the balance on your suspended account.Did you violated any of their terms in the recent days?

Possible reasons for suspension and termination could be found here

7.1 Suspension, Termination and Cancellation. We may: (a) refuse to complete, or block, cancel or reverse a transaction you have authorised (even after funds have been debited from your Coinbase Account), (b) suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Coinbase Services, and/or (c) deactivate or cancel your Coinbase Account with immediate effect for any reason, including but not limited to where:

we reasonably believe that we need to do so in order to protect our reputation;

we are, in our reasonable opinion, required to do so by applicable law, regulation or any court or other authority to which we are subject in any jurisdiction;

we reasonably suspect you of acting in breach of this Agreement;

we reasonably suspect you have breached our ‘Behaviour Policy’ or our ‘Policy on Prohibited Use, Prohibited Businesses and Conditional Use’ (as set out in Appendix 1);

we have concerns that a transaction is erroneous or about the security of your Coinbase Account or we suspect the Coinbase Services are being used in a fraudulent or unauthorised manner;

we suspect money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, or any other financial crime;

use of your Coinbase Account is subject to any pending litigation, investigation, or government proceeding and / or we perceive a heightened risk of legal or regulatory non-compliance associated with your Coinbase Account activity; and / or

you take any action that may circumvent our controls such as opening multiple Coinbase Accounts or abusing promotions which we may offer from time to time.

We may also refuse to complete or block, cancel or reverse a transaction you have authorised where there is insufficient E-Money in your E-Money Wallet and / or insufficient Digital Currency in your Digital Currency Wallet to cover the transaction and (where applicable) associated fees at the time that we receive notification of the transaction or if your credit or debit card or any other valid payment method linked to your Coinbase Account or Digital Currency Wallet is declined.

7.2 If we refuse to complete a transaction and / or suspend, restrict or close your Coinbase Account, and / or terminate your use of Coinbase Services, we will (unless it would be unlawful for us to do so) provide you with notice of our actions and the reasons for refusal, suspension or closure, and where appropriate, with the procedure for correcting any factual errors that led to the refusal, suspension or closure. In the event that we refuse to complete a transaction and / or suspend your Coinbase Account we will lift the suspension or complete the transaction as soon as reasonably practicable once the reasons for refusal and / or suspension no longer exist. However, we are under no obligation to allow you to reinstate a transaction at the same price or on the same terms as the suspended, reversed or cancelled transaction.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Coinbase Services and/or deactivate or cancel your Coinbase Account, without reason by giving you two months’ notice. You acknowledge that our decision to take certain actions, including limiting access to, suspending, or closing your Coinbase Account, may be based on confidential criteria that are essential for the purposes of our risk management and security protocols. You agree that we are under no obligation to disclose the details of its risk management and security procedures to you.

source : https://www.coinbase.com/legal/user_agreement

[figmentofmyass]

maybe they fundamentally misunderstood the business model during the onboarding process. some activity of your company's must have triggered their AML risk controls. in fact it sounds like maybe the 30k euro deposit did it.

over what time period have you not received a response---days? weeks? as an onboarded institutional client (extended KYC) i would think your situation would be sorted relatively quickly.

Hmm. I had no idea that Coinbase allowed reselling at all.

they're known for closing individual accounts who appear to operate as MSB (like LBC traders performing arbitrage) but i have no idea what their policies are for institutional accounts. there aren't too many institutions posting their experiences on reddit after all.

The two most common options for gaining attention will be tweeting about it and tweeting them and getting on r/bitcoin and starting a thread there. Everyone hates Coinbase so it might get good visibility and it might spur them into action.

^^^ do this.

[Petersta]

Hey guys,

Thank you for all advices you gave me. Basically all of you is advicing to try our luck on social media. For now we're still waiting for their answer (it's above 2 weeks) and well, if there still won't be nothing, we'll try social media.

I will also keep you posted here in case of any updates.

[Harlot]

I have a feeling that you have just been flagged with the suspicion of money laundering. Did you disclosed your business towards Coinbase and are they fully aware about you being the middleman for them? I see several cases here but its really either a flagged in money laundering or Coinbase doesn't want any association with you because you are acting out as an unofficial middleman for them. I don't know certain EU laws but its more likely just those two. Try calling their landline or any phone number you can call them don't just leave them messages as their online support sucks.

[Petersta]

They screened my business model before approving the account and it hasn't changed since so I don't think that is the issue. Moreover, our business has been also screened by banks and we managed to successfully open bank account. We also got detailed check by law firm specialized in crypto - this was requirement of our payment service provider (we accept payments via sofort, ideal, sepa and others, soon also cards).

To be honest I don't really want them to even disclose the reason, I just want them to send my money back. We already found other solution that works just fine.

[coolcoinz]

They screened my business model before approving the account and it hasn't changed since so I don't think that is the issue. Moreover, our business has been also screened by banks and we managed to successfully open bank account. We also got detailed check by law firm specialized in crypto - this was requirement of our payment service provider (we accept payments via sofort, ideal, sepa and others, soon also cards).

To be honest I don't really want them to even disclose the reason, I just want them to send my money back. We already found other solution that works just fine.

Maybe they were not expecting so much money to be going through your account?
You were in a way at fault here because they gave you 2 months notice and you did not remove coinbase address from your site and allowed your clients to keep sending money there which resulted in the last big deposit arriving hours before the account was closed. It was very irresponsible of you as a business owner.
They have the right to close your account but should give back the money. Keep on contacting them and hire a lawyer if you can and make them send coinbase a letter.

[magneto]

They screened my business model before approving the account and it hasn't changed since so I don't think that is the issue. Moreover, our business has been also screened by banks and we managed to successfully open bank account. We also got detailed check by law firm specialized in crypto - this was requirement of our payment service provider (we accept payments via sofort, ideal, sepa and others, soon also cards).

To be honest I don't really want them to even disclose the reason, I just want them to send my money back. We already found other solution that works just fine.

I don't understand even in the worst case scenario why they would have the legal obligation to hold your coins.

I mean after all, you've passed their initial screening, completed KYC AML and the whole suite of verification processes. I'm not sure what else they would want from you that is absolutely a necessity.

It seems a hell of a lot like they are taking advantage of this situation by being completely unresponsive, since they are now holding onto your funds without consent. Their support has never been good, but I certainly expected an improvement after this many years of development.

[liuqi]

Is there any rule or level of account to make the payment kind of stuffs. I never see the people using coinbase recent days because of the recent market fall and no big presence for the projects.
They need to understand when there no value they cannot anything and if do not allow means split the transaction and do the payout buddy.

[veleten]

They screened my business model before approving the account and it hasn't changed since so I don't think that is the issue. Moreover, our business has been also screened by banks and we managed to successfully open bank account. We also got detailed check by law firm specialized in crypto - this was requirement of our payment service provider (we accept payments via sofort, ideal, sepa and others, soon also cards).

To be honest I don't really want them to even disclose the reason, I just want them to send my money back. We already found other solution that works just fine.

I don't understand even in the worst case scenario why they would have the legal obligation to hold your coins.

I mean after all, you've passed their initial screening, completed KYC AML and the whole suite of verification processes. I'm not sure what else they would want from you that is absolutely a necessity.

It seems a hell of a lot like they are taking advantage of this situation by being completely unresponsive, since they are now holding onto your funds without consent. Their support has never been good, but I certainly expected an improvement after this many years of development.

this is not the first time they are doing this and they close the accounts AND confiscate coins in most cases
as has already been suggested in the topic , try to create media fuzz by writing about it on twitter, reddit , facebook etc.
basically , everywhere you could reach and hope that they would think that returning 40.000 is better than hurting their not-so-clean business reputation even further
if nothing helps I would consult a lawyer and see if anything could be done legally to get your money back

[gentlemand]

AND confiscate coins in most cases

Can you point to any thread or comment that confirms that?

I've never heard of anyone being deprived of their money and there are definitely no legal grounds for them to do so unless it's from a confirmed theft and there's some sort of warrant on them. I would expect someone who was subjected to that to be louder than ever. I assume they get quietly resolved and go elsewhere. Could be wrong though.