Your Coinbase account
is blocked?
Coinbase publishes the reasons it restricts accounts and puts the required steps in the account itself. Reading that notice correctly decides everything that follows — including whether there is anything to answer at all.
We are not employees of Coinbase. Independent consulting.
Your account has been temporarily restricted due to unusual activity. Withdrawal and trading functions are currently unavailable.
Triggered: Terms of Use violation
Case ID: #BNX-2847-QRST
Last updated: 2 minutes ago
cases reviewed
average first response time
supported exchanges
24h Volume
—
Jurisdiction
United States
Year established
2012
Formerly GDAX, later Coinbase Pro · renamed 2018
Select what matches your situation
The account opens, the balance is visible, and the actions are greyed out.
Account restricted
Buys, sends and deposits are unavailable on this account.
What it means
Coinbase restricts accounts for safety and compliance purposes, and disables trading and transfers where it has detected suspicious activity.
What Coinbase requires
Reading the in-app notification: Coinbase states it outlines the steps to complete, such as verification or addressing failed send attempts.
Your first step
Complete the steps the notice names before contacting support — in most cases the notice is the process, not a summary of it.
Can't find your case? Click 'Analyze my case' — we'll review the wording together.
Why Coinbase restricts an account
Coinbase groups restrictions by what caused them. Two of these are resolved by you inside the account; the others are decisions with a defined process behind them.
Suspicious activity on the account
Coinbase disables trading and transfers when it detects suspicious activity, and states this is done to protect your funds. The restriction is protective rather than punitive, and the account itself carries the steps that clear it.
KYC, risk or regulatory ineligibility
Coinbase names ineligibility for KYC, risk or similar regulatory reasons as a ground for restriction. In practice this is the category that asks for identity documents or proof of residency and holds the account until they are accepted.
Activity prohibited by the User Agreement
Use that the User Agreement prohibits is its own ground. Coinbase's agreement states that where it suspends, restricts or closes an account it provides notice of the action, the reasons for it, and where appropriate the procedure for correcting factual errors that led to it.
Access from a prohibited region
Coinbase maintains a prohibited-regions list tied to U.S. Treasury sanctions, and attempting to access the account from one restricts it. This is jurisdictional: it is not resolved by explaining the transaction.
A compromised account, locked to protect it
Where an account is compromised, Coinbase's own flow locks it and then unlocks it through a signed-in security process, not through a support conversation. The lock is the protection working.
Coinbase says notifications in the app or web experience outline the steps that must be completed — verification, or addressing failed send attempts. That notice is the specific version of everything above.
5 things that will make the situation worse
Do not answer a phone call claiming to be Coinbase
Coinbase states it will never make an unsolicited phone call to a customer. A call you did not request is not Coinbase, however convincing the caller ID.
Do not give a password, a 2FA code or a seed phrase to anyone
Coinbase states its support team will never ask for your password or 2FA codes, will never ask for or provide a seed phrase, and will never ask you to install software.
Do not move funds to a 'safe' address someone gives you
Coinbase states no one will ever ask you to transfer assets to a specific or new address, account, vault or wallet, and that it will never call or text you with a new address to move funds to.
Do not email your documents
Coinbase states documents sent by email will not be accepted. Uploading through the app or website is both the working route and the safe one.
Do not use a VPN to get past a regional restriction
Prohibited regions are tied to sanctions. Concealing location does not resolve that and moves the problem into the User Agreement, where the consequences are worse.
Coinbase will never make an unsolicited phone call to a customer, and support will never ask for your password, 2FA codes, or for you to install any additional software.
— Coinbase, technical support and impersonation scams
What to check first on Coinbase
Open the in-app notification
Coinbase states it outlines the steps that must be completed. It is the specific instruction for your restriction, and it is usually already there.
Check verification status
Accounts have limited functionality until verification is complete. An unfinished check explains a large share of restricted accounts on its own.
Look for failed send attempts
Coinbase names these alongside verification as a thing the notification asks you to address.
Read the notice for the reasons and the procedure
Where Coinbase restricts or closes an account, its User Agreement states it gives notice of the action, the reasons, and where appropriate the procedure for correcting factual errors.
What Coinbase may ask you for
Coinbase publishes its document requirements in detail, and they are strict in specific ways that cause avoidable rejections.
A government-issued identity document
Outside the US, Coinbase accepts driver licences, passports and some national ID cards. For US customers it accepts a US state-issued driver's licence or ID card and states it cannot accept a US passport, because it does not indicate the state of residence.
A document that meets the quality rules
Valid, supported, fully visible, and showing your legal name, date of birth, address or country, and the document number.
An ID and selfie capture through the device camera
Coinbase's flow captures both on the device. Its guidance asks for indirect natural light to avoid glare and a plain background behind the document.
Proof of residency, where residency is in question
Coinbase maintains a separate list of acceptable proof-of-residency documents, used where the address on the account is what needs confirming.
Coinbase states that documents sent by email will not be accepted, and that after a completed identification process you receive the review status within 24 hours.
Block risk assessment
Answer 8 questions — we'll show the block type and recommendations for Coinbase Exchange.
#Q1 of 8
When was your account blocked?
What we actually do
Read the restriction notice with you
Coinbase's notice names the ground and often the exact step. Most of the value is in separating a verification block from a User Agreement decision correctly.
From: compliance@coinbase.com
Your account flagged for suspicious activity. Please complete KYC verification.
Check the document against the published requirements
Wrong document type for the country, an expired ID, a cropped edge, glare. Rejections here are common and entirely avoidable.
Identify what can actually be disputed
Where the User Agreement procedure allows correcting factual errors, the answer has to name the error. We help find whether there is one.
DO
Clear facts
Documents
DON'T
Emotions
Threats
Prepare the submission
Documents in the accepted form, through the accepted channel, with wording that matches what Coinbase already holds about you.
Be straight about jurisdiction cases
A restriction based on a prohibited region is not a documentation problem, and we will say so rather than sell a case that cannot be made.
The decision is always the exchange's. What we control is that your case reaches it complete, correct and on time.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my Coinbase account restricted?
today 14:23
Coinbase names several grounds: suspicious activity detected on the account, ineligibility for KYC, risk or similar regulatory reasons, activity prohibited by the User Agreement, and access from a region subject to U.S. Treasury sanctions. The notification in the app or web experience outlines which steps apply to your account.
unblock.exchange · today 14:23
Will Coinbase tell me why my account was restricted?
today 14:30
Its User Agreement states that where Coinbase suspends, restricts or closes an account it provides notice of the action, the reasons for the restriction, and where appropriate the procedure for correcting any factual errors that led to it.
unblock.exchange · today 14:30
Which ID does Coinbase accept?
today 14:37
Outside the US, driver licences, passports and some national ID cards. For US customers Coinbase accepts a US state-issued driver's licence or identification card and states it cannot accept a US passport, because it does not indicate which state you reside in. The document must be valid, supported, fully visible and show your legal name, date of birth, address or country, and document number.
unblock.exchange · today 14:37
How long does Coinbase take to review a verification?
today 14:44
Coinbase states that after successful completion of the identification process you receive notification of the review status within 24 hours. It publishes no equivalent timeframe for restrictions that are not verification-based.
unblock.exchange · today 14:44
Someone called saying they are Coinbase support. Is that real?
today 14:51
No. Coinbase states it will never make an unsolicited phone call to a customer, its support team will never ask for a password or 2FA codes or for you to install software, and no one will ever ask you to move assets to a new address, account, vault or wallet.
unblock.exchange · today 14:51
I followed a GDAX link and ended up here. Is this the right page?
today 14:58
Yes. GDAX was the name of Coinbase's professional trading platform before it became Coinbase Pro and then part of Coinbase itself, and this page used to be published at that legacy address. It now lives at /unfreeze-coinbase-account, and the old address redirects here.
unblock.exchange · today 14:58
Other exchanges
The same block scenarios play out on other platforms.
Tell us what happened
Tell us what happened with your Coinbase Exchange account, attach email screenshots. We'll review the situation, assess risks, and suggest a course of action.
Fully confidential. No account credentials required.