Is Coinbase safe? Licences, account freezes and incidents
Is Coinbase safe?
Coinbase has 1 licence found in the ESMA MiCA register, issued by the CSSF to Coinbase Luxembourg S.A., not to Coinbase, Inc., the company in the terms read. Its terms let it freeze, suspend or close an account, with immediate effect. Its terms restrict unlawful or unlicensed gambling only. No primary-source incident is recorded, which is not proof of none.
Documents last checked Reviewed by CryptoGuardz Register Desk, editorial desk
Disclosure: CryptoGuardz has no commercial relationship with Coinbase and earns nothing if you open an account there. Every statement below is read from a document Coinbase publishes or from a public register, and each carries the date it was read. Corrections go to the corrections page.
Coinbase review: the documents
This is a review of the documents Coinbase publishes and of the registers that should list it, not a test of the platform: no account was funded and no withdrawal was run. The binding terms name Coinbase, Inc. as the company you contract with, and state no place of incorporation. The record quotes 7 clauses across 7 topics, read 2026-09-28, from 6 sources. Coinbase has 1 licence found in the ESMA MiCA register, issued by the CSSF to Coinbase Luxembourg S.A., not to Coinbase, Inc., the company in the terms read. Its proof-of-reserves page could not be loaded, so that field is no data. The terms carry a clause on what happens to customer assets if the company fails, quoted below. Its terms restrict unlawful or unlicensed gambling only. 3 points could not be verified and are listed below.
Is my crypto safe on Coinbase?
Coinbase is a custodial exchange: coins on the account are held by the exchange, not by a key you control. What protects them is what the binding terms say about holding customer assets and about the company failing. One clause on holding customer assets is quoted below.
2.7.4. Omnibus Accounts. In order to more securely and effectively custody assets, Coinbase may use shared blockchain addresses, controlled by Coinbase, to hold Supported Digital Assets for Digital Asset Wallets on behalf of customers and/or held on behalf of Coinbase. Although we maintain separate ledgers for users’ Coinbase Accounts and Coinbase accounts held by Coinbase for its own benefit, Coinbase shall have no obligation to create a segregated blockchain address for your Supported Digital Assets.coinbase.com
Insolvency and bankruptcy language in the terms, verbatim:
2.7.1. Ownership. Title to Supported Digital Assets shall at all times remain with you and shall not transfer to Coinbase. Notwithstanding the foregoing, title to Supported Digital Assets may be transferred to a third party pursuant to the Secured USDC terms of the Coinbase One Card in Appendix 4. All interests in Digital Assets we hold for Digital Asset Wallets are held for customers, are not property of Coinbase, and are not subject to claims of Coinbase’s creditors.coinbase.com
Can Coinbase freeze my account?
Yes, by its terms. The clause is quoted as written, followed by the clause on suspending withdrawals. Grounds named in the text: its own discretion, with no reason required, a legal, regulatory or court requirement, suspected fraud, money laundering or a suspicious transaction and a use or business its policy prohibits.
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.coinbase.com
We reserve the right to refuse to process, or to cancel, correct, clawback, or reverse, any Digital Asset Transaction or Transfers in our sole discretion, even after funds have been debited from your account(s), in response to a subpoena, court order, or other government order; or if we suspect the transaction may: involve money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, or any other type of financial crime; be erroneous; or relate to a Prohibited Use or a Prohibited Business as set forth in the Prohibited Use Policy.coinbase.com
Sending funds to a casino is a named trigger in a clause that restricts unlawful gambling:
Unlawful Gambling: Lotteries; bidding fee auctions; sports forecasting or odds making; fantasy sports leagues with cash prizes; internet gaming; contests; sweepstakes; or games of chance that are not sanctioned by a governmental body or regulatory authority.coinbase.com
Has Coinbase been hacked or fined?
No hack, fine or regulator action was found for Coinbase from primary sources in this collection: no company disclosure, no court filing and no regulator notice. That is not proof that none happened. It is the absence of a search result, and a press report is not recorded here until a primary source confirms it.
Coinbase support and scams
The official domain in the record is coinbase.com. Type it yourself rather than following a link from an ad, a search result or a message, and reach support only from inside the account you signed in to there.
Real support never asks for a seed phrase or for remote access to your device. An exchange account is opened with a login, not a recovery phrase, so a request for one is a request for a wallet you hold elsewhere. A request to install a screen-sharing or remote-desktop app hands the caller your signed-in session. Either one ends the conversation.
If money has already gone, the next message offering to get it back is the commonest second loss. The FBI, the FTC, the CFTC and the UK FCA have each published warnings about it, quoted on crypto scam recovery: what is real.
What we could not verify
The gaps in this record, as the record states them. A point listed here was looked for and not confirmed; it is neither a finding for Coinbase nor against it.
- The state of incorporation and company number of Coinbase, Inc. Neither appears in the User Agreement.
- Any proof of reserves. coinbase.com/proof-of-reserves returned HTTP 403.
- The terms that bind a user outside the United States. Only the US User Agreement was read.