Coinbase account restrictions

Coinbase sometimes places restrictions on accounts for safety and compliance purposes.

Buying and selling restrictions

Coinbase may disable buying and selling for customers who engage in activity prohibited by our User Agreement, including activity posing a high risk of fraud. When buying and selling crypto is disabled, customers can still:

  • Send and receive crypto assets

  • Cash out funds to a linked, verified bank account

Account closures

Coinbase may close the accounts of customers who violate our User Agreement by engaging in prohibited activity. 

When accounts are closed, customers cannot:

  • Buy or sell on Coinbase

  • Use their Coinbase account to store a crypto balance

But customers still can:

  • Send any remaining crypto balances from their Coinbase account to a wallet address that is not connected to their Coinbase account

  • Cash out any remaining cash balance to a verified, linked bank account before the account closure proceeds

Note: If a buy or cash add is pending when an account is being closed, the balance will be available to send or cash out once the transaction completes.

Frozen funds

In extremely rare circumstances, Coinbase may block or "freeze" customer funds.

Coinbase freezes funds when:

  • We are required to comply with an order from a court or other authority with jurisdiction over Coinbase that 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 US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).


See the Coinbase Prohibited & Conditional Use Policy.

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