Something Strange Happening with Coinbase. Smells like FTX

I'm using a burner account. Not sure what Coinbase intentions are, and my crypto is locked in their platform, so want to detach myself from this post.

Something strange is happening at Coinbase. The Coinbase subreddit is full of this exact complaint and issue that I just experienced and will detail below.

I purchased some Bitcoin on Coinbase. I have to wait about 9 days for the transaction to clear before I can send it off of Coinbase and into my own wallet. Everything is fine up to here.

An hour before my transaction was going to clear at the 9th day at 6pm, I get an email saying my account has been flagged and needs to be re-verified. I log into Coinbase, re-registed my account by taking a photo of my ID and a selfie like the prompts asked. Reverification successful. I look around the app, everything looks fine, except when I click "Send" to send crypto off the exchange. The message reads "Account Restricted. You're currently unable to send crypto on Coinbase. Please visit [link] for assistance.

Then, I started off by chatting to the Support Chat link in the app. They created a ticket, I can see the open ticket. An hour later, the ticket would be marked as "Closed and Resolved". I called back 3 more times separately, created 3 more tickets, and all 3 tickets were Closed and Resolved after an hour. Chat noticed the previous were marked as resolved, though they still see the account is restricted.

Eventually I called support to try to talk to a person.

I called support, and my god, this is the worst Support experience I've never had in my life. The support guy on the phone only answered questions by reading off a prompt. I'm trying my best to get him to actually answer my questions, and all I would get is "the system has to go through its process, and it can take hours, days, or months for it to clear. I'm upset, I don't have access to my funds, and the response of "It can be locked for months, I don't know" made me angry. I asked to speak to supervisor (Yeah, I Karen'd him), but he said we are only Level 1 support. We do not have access to the things you're inquiring about. We can only create tickets, not resolve issues. So I told him to create a ticket, and have Level 2 support email me so we can resolve this.

An hour later, I get an email from Coinbase. Generic copy and paste email that said:

" Please note: that we can't guarantee a change to your current account status, and any decision based on our review will be final. For security reasons, we're also not able to provide additional information about this account review."

So here I am shitting bricks thinking,

1. Why are they changing my account status?
2. And if I cant get a hold of anyone, and they're shutting my account, do I just lose the huge deposit I just made? I freak out a bit and I email back asking them what can we do to expedite this process as I've already re-verified my account, and I'd like to hold my crypto on my own wallet ASAP.

They replied back with a Copy/Paste reply stating

"The send feature will be re-enabled in 2 months. Presently, as a preventive measure designed to safeguard against irreversible loss, as transactions conducted outside of the Coinbase platform cannot be reversed, your account is temporarily prohibited from sending cryptocurrency off the Coinbase platform. To withdraw my crypto currency under the current status, you can convert your crypto currency to cash and transfer funds to your verified bank account."

1. WTF mate, 2 months?
2. How is delaying my ability to send my crypto off of coinbase going to prevent me any less from sending it to a wrong address?
3. Converting/buying/selling anything is all disabled. I cant do anything. So I can't withdraw what I've already deposited.

I explained the issue, I get a generic reply that said "We are sorry you are experiencing these difficulties. If you continue to experience this issue, please create a new ticket at [Link].

1. WTF mate again. I thought you were support?

I created another ticket and got stuck in an endless loop of an email reply asking me to create a ticket.

I get in touch with Level 2 again and tell them "Okay, forget about withdrawing. I'll wait for 2 months, no problem. But now that I am verified as you have confirmed, is there anything else you need from me? I don't want the 2 months to roll around and get hit with another procedure that will take another 2 months. They respond with this:

We cannot bypass the process of reviewing customer accounts so you willl have to wait until the review is compelete to send crypto.

To perform a review of your account, we need to know about your intended use of the Coinbase platform. Please provide this information:

- Please explain why you signed up for Coinbase and what you intend to use Coinbase for.

- Were you directed by a third party to create the account?

- Were you directed by a third party to transfer funds?

- Does anyone besides yourself have access to your account, or account credentials?

Please provide the following information about your crypto sends to external wallets:

- Name of the recipient

- Your relationship to the recipient

- Purpose of sending these funds

Please provide detailed answers to avoid a delay of your account review.

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns with this.

​

1. MATE WTF.

First thought that comes to mind is they are requiring updated verification to be complaint with the US. But it's weird because the ID and Selfie verification was already complete years ago when I opened my account. I had bought and sent crypto from Coinbase for years without issue.

My next thought is, Is this another FTX thing happening? Why are multiple people all experiencing the exact same lockout after their transaction clears? Why are they all given different timelines to wait? On the Coinbase subreddit, I read a user got 15 days, another user got 30, another got 45, and I got 60. I've recently read on the Coinbase subreddit that a user has a 90 day hold on sending any crypto. Is the top forcing reverifications for everyone purchasing crypto to buy them time to keep it on their books for another FTX like ordeal?

I don't know man. If it only happened to me, I wouldn't think much about it. But this is a TON of users and it is all very recent. You can find the number of posts on the Coinbase subreddit right now.