What could make an exchange to seize users assets

[Outhue]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

[1714887541]

1714887541

[mk4]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

If I were to guess, the most common issue is lack of proof-of-personal identification. Coinbase is a public American company that's obviously highly regulated, hence requirements will be greatly extreme.

But since you know the person, maybe ask her what what Coinbase's reason for seizing her funds?

[John Abraham]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

Yes. If you search for such result on the internet, You will find plenty of users' account was frozen. Coinbase has a big list of reasons that can cause freezing your funds. Most probably, your friend deposited Crypto in Online casinos or paid for adult content and services. Or maybe invested in pyramid Schemes. Most Users do not read the User agreement before they sign up.

Coinbase Prohibits Plenty of Businesses like Investment and Credit Services, Restricted Financial Services, Intellectual Property or Proprietary Rights Infringement, Counterfeit or Unauthorized Goods, Regulated Products and Services, Drugs and Drug Paraphernalia, Pseudo-Pharmaceuticals, Substances designed to mimic illegal drugs, Adult Content and Services, Multi-level Marketing, Unfair, predatory or deceptive practices, High-risk businesses.

Coinbase itself mentioned why they could freeze your funds:

In extremely rare circumstances, and only where required by law or authorized by the Coinbase User Agreement, Coinbase may block or "freeze" customer funds on our platform. For example, we will take this action when:

We are required to comply with an order from a court or other authority that has jurisdiction over Coinbase which compels us to restrict access to funds.

We are required by law to freeze or block assets in compliance with a sanctions program, including, but not limited to sanctions programs administered by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

For more detailed information, I recommend you read this:

[1] Does Coinbase freeze accounts?
[2] Coinbase Prohibited & Conditional Use Policy
[3] Coinbase User Agreement _{Read from 6.1 to 6.3 SUSPENSION, TERMINATION, AND CANCELLATION.}

[o_e_l_e_o]

-snip-

While everything you have said is true, Coinbase's policies are far more wide reaching than that. They essentially give Coinbase the ability to close your account and seize your coins for literally any reason at all, and there is nothing you can do about it. For example:

6.10. Suspension, Termination, and Cancellation. Coinbase may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Coinbase Services, and/or deactivate or cancel your Coinbase Account(s), with immediate effect for any reason at its sole discretion and is under no obligation to disclose the details of its decision to take such action with you. You acknowledge that Coinbase's decision to take certain actions, including limiting access to, suspending, or closing your account for any reason in our sole discretion, may be based on confidential criteria that are essential to Coinbase's risk management and security protocols. You agree that Coinbase is under no obligation to disclose the details of its risk management and security procedures to you.

At any time, for any reason, and they won't even tell you why, let alone let you appeal against it.

And as we have seen from several recent court cases and bankruptcy proceedings, the instant coins are deposited to a centralized exchange, then legally speaking those coins belong to the exchange and you have absolutely no claim over them. There are thousands of such users who have had various centralized exchanges simply seize their coins with no explanation ever given.

[Upgrade00]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them?

Many of such cases. I'm sure if you count the unreported isolated cases it would reveal a much higher number.

I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

I have no idea why you would respect coinbase. It's an anti privacy company which has been reported to be sharing user details to government authorities, or selling them in some cases, among so many other ills.
Why they can seize someone's funds is simply because they can. You give them the authority to do that when you sign up and agree to their terms.

[Jawhead999]

There are a lot rules you can find on Coinbase where they stated you need to follow all of their terms of services otherwise they will ask you to submit KYC and then they might seize your funds or terminated your account. After all it's depends on the Coinbase to punish you and you have no way to complaint since they will always right. Think twice before using any centralized exchange even though you're only use it to buy and sell your coins, they might not allow you to withdraw and you need to handle this problem.

[John Abraham]

6.10. Suspension, Termination, and Cancellation. Coinbase may suspend, restrict, or terminate your access to any or all of the Coinbase Services, and/or deactivate or cancel your Coinbase Account(s), with immediate effect for any reason at its sole discretion and is under no obligation to disclose the details of its decision to take such action with you. You acknowledge that Coinbase's decision to take certain actions, including limiting access to, suspending, or closing your account for any reason in our sole discretion, may be based on confidential criteria that are essential to Coinbase's risk management and security protocols. You agree that Coinbase is under no obligation to disclose the details of its risk management and security procedures to you.

Yeah, In my previous post, I also suggested OP to read this;

[3] Coinbase User Agreement _{Read from 6.1 to 6.3 SUSPENSION, TERMINATION, AND CANCELLATION.}

At any time, for any reason, and they won't even tell you why, let alone let you appeal against it.

Would you use such a service If you knew they have the right to do such things with your account and funds? I don't understand why OP respects Coinbase so much, but this is the sickest user agreement I have ever read. To be honest, I didn't read their user agreement before today. But I wanted to dig into the reason, and I was shocked.

I believe over 95% of Coinbase users don't know about this. Almost no one reads the user agreement when they sign up. If anyone does, I don't think they will end up signing up on Coinbase after they find what coinbase can do. Almost nobody knows what's hiding in their user agreement page. I Believe it needs a particular thread with awareness, and people should know about this.

[THE PASTOR]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

Cryptocurrency exchanges are obliged to adhere to regulatory requirements that vary based on their jurisdiction. These requirements may encompass tasks such as verifying user identities, monitoring transactions for suspicious activity, and reporting specific transactions to government entities. If a user fails to conform to these obligations or if their transactions are identified as suspicious, the exchange may be bound by law to temporarily freeze their assets until the matter is appropriately resolved.

[AbuBhakar]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

Actually account freeze is the number issue of coinbase before they become this huge exchange that’s is now regulated by the US. The only reason that coinbase will freeze someone account is the potential violation of there T&C. It includes bit not limited to suspicious activity on your account. I believe most of the CEX has this kind of condition for their exchange.

I believe there’s a lot of issue like this against coinbase way back 2017 when the first ICO boom in crypto market because there’s a lot of investors depositing on coinbase using fiat to invest on startup projects.

[Dunamisx]

Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them?

Yes and there are many reasons that could warrant them doing that, but the first mistake comes from the user by leaving a whole numbers of decentralized exchanges for centralized exchanges, so if you're using a centralized exchange, know it that you're one of the anticipating aspirant for this kind of experience with ceisure, while at the registration point you provided them with KYC information and they use it to track you, the AML agencies comes after you through them as well and track any suspicious move in transactions you made, they got attacked and their system get hacked all your asset gone as well.

[drwhobox]

A common issue when it comes to centralised exchanges, coinbase or other exchanges have policies that they can freeze your assets and block your account anytime if you don't proof the ownership of your account or if you fail to convince them that you are the rightful owner of that particular account.

You can find many cases on the internet about account freezes of centralised exchanges.

[Cryptoababe]

For me, maybe your friend received her assets from a red flagged wallet. In this case.,some exchanges will freeze the receivers account or disable the account from trading. Ive seen cases related to this on Binance and the owner account was disabled from trading.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I don't understand why OP respects Coinbase so much, but this is the sickest user agreement I have ever read. To be honest, I didn't read their user agreement before today. But I wanted to dig into the reason, and I was shocked.

Pretty much every centralized exchange has words to the same effect buried somewhere in their legal documents. The fact is that as soon as you deposit your coins to any centralized exchange, they do not belong to you and the exchange can do anything they like with them, including simply keeping them for themselves. It happens all the time, but everyone thinks "Well, it won't happen to me", right up until it does and they lose all their money.

I believe over 95% of Coinbase users don't know about this. Almost no one reads the user agreement when they sign up. If anyone does, I don't think they will end up signing up on Coinbase after they find what coinbase can do. Almost nobody knows what's hiding in their user agreement page.

The exact same thing happened with the likes of Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi. Here's a post I made several years ago warning people about these platforms: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5315224.msg56289293#msg56289293. In it, I point out that their terms quite clearly state that they will lend out, gamble and sell your coins, all while keeping zero collateral, and you have absolutely zero rights if it all goes to shit. Fast forward several years and these platforms collapse because of this exact reason, and all their users are shocked that they were engaging in the exact behavior they said they were engaging in, because none of the users had bothered to read the terms.

[John Abraham]

Pretty much every centralized exchange has words to the same effect buried somewhere in their legal documents. The fact is that as soon as you deposit your coins to any centralized exchange, they do not belong to you and the exchange can do anything they like with them, including simply keeping them for themselves. It happens all the time, but everyone thinks "Well, it won't happen to me", right up until it does and they lose all their money.

After reading this post. I checked the user agreement of the most trusted (?) Exchange that I use as well. It's Binance. I use this platform to trade with my locals because I do not have other options to trade with locals. I checked Binance and Kucoin user agreements they literally said they can terminate your account and seize your fund for any reason without giving you any explanation. Also, they won't give any explanation to a third parties including the law firms as they already have the rights because you accepted the terms and conditions when you signed up.

The exact same thing happened with the likes of Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi. Here's a post I made several years ago warning people about these platforms: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5315224.msg56289293#msg56289293.

I didn't know about those platforms. I would like to create a separate thread regarding this issue and I will dig a few more popular exchanges user agreements and gather them all together. Would you mind if I quote your old post about Celsius, Voyager and BlockFi?

all their users are shocked that they were engaging in the exact behavior they said they were engaging in because none of the users had bothered to read the terms.

This is the mistake we do as users. I myself never bothered to check full terms and conditions before I sign up. That's sick.

[o_e_l_e_o]

I use this platform to trade with my locals because I do not have other options to trade with locals.

Check out some decentralized exchanges: https://kycnot.me/. You might find some local activity.

I checked Binance and Kucoin user agreements they literally said they can terminate your account and seize your fund for any reason without giving you any explanation.

Yup. Every centralized exchange is the same.

I didn't know about those platforms. I would like to create a separate thread regarding this issue and I will dig a few more popular exchanges user agreements and gather them all together. Would you mind if I quote your old post about Celsius, Voyager and BlockFi?

By all means, but these platforms have already collapsed and declared insolvency (exactly because they were doing what I highlighted above - gambling all their users' deposits in order to try to make themselves more profit).

This is the mistake we do as users. I myself never bothered to check full terms and conditions before I sign up. That's sick.

It's impossible to read the terms for every single website or service that you use, but when it comes to something that you are going to be sending money to, then people should really take the time to figure out just what they are signing up for. In the case of centralized exchanges, it is usually a case of signing away all your coins, all your privacy, and all your rights.

[Taskford]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

This will only happen if coinbase find suspicious activity on your account and you cannot provide proof of identification that you own the account for sure in this case the users funds will get freeze until he can provide the necessary requirements ask by the platform. Also read the term of service since there are written rules regarding on how you can avoid your account to get lock up.

[medussa]

It happens with many exchanges- not just coin base, any government-regulated exchange can freeze your funds for any reason, from suspicious transactions to money laundry or even inadvertently buying bitcoins or crypto assets that have been blacklisted or used to fund illegal activities. That is why buying bitcoins in the streets and then sending it to a centralized exchange can sometimes pose a problem.

[cryptoaddictchie]

For me, maybe your friend received her assets from a red flagged wallet. In this case.,some exchanges will freeze the receivers account or disable the account from trading. Ive seen cases related to this on Binance and the owner account was disabled from trading.

Possibly this one. There are lots of incident were am account was locked due to malicious funds that coming from somewhere or has been flagged by the exchange and he keeps getting funds from that. Mostly gambling sites, or another one might be the lack of personal identification of the person that needs to give up.

[dkbit98]

Coinbase exchange was launched in 2012 right? Have there ever been any cases of users' assets being frozen and never released to them? I know someone living in the united states, she said that Coinbase seized her crypto in 2020 within that COVID-19 period and to date, the assets were never released back to her. I respect coinbase so much and I am curious why such a thing would happen.

It can happen for any reason and they don't even need to give you real explanation why they froze your coins.
They can claim your coins are involved with some hacks and stolen funds, or they can say your source of funds is suspicious, and it can even happen because of you location.
This can happen with all centralized exchange, not just for Coinbase but I think Coinbase is going to be inbig trouble because of connection with USDC so better withdraw coins to your own wallet.
You can use P2P trading and decentrlaized exchanges, than you dont have to worry that someone will freeze your accounts.

[Krislaw]

Crypto exchanges can seize users fund for reason like
receiving stolen funds
discrepancies in details submitted during account registration or insufficient info during AML process.
use of unsupported tools in ones account.
there are lot to mention And these exchanges will never give you reasons because of confidential reasons.