Comment · Fri, April 7, 2017 · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
Coinbase closing accounts associated with Nootropics depot
Original post in this thread
Shortl4ndo · 47 points
Hello,
Thank you for your interest in Coinbase. Our primary goal is to make digital currency safe and secure for our customers. Coinbase is a regulated Money Services Business under FinCEN (FinCEN.gov), and as part of achieving this goal, we are legally obligated to implement regulatory compliance mechanisms.
Upon careful review, we believe your account has engaged in prohibited use in violation of our Terms of Service and we regret to inform you that we can no longer provide you with access to our service. We respectfully request that you follow the on-screen instructions presented when you log into your Coinbase account to send any remaining balance offsite to an external address.
Should you have any questions or need assistance, please let us know and we'll be happy to help.
Respectfully,
Coinbase Customer Support
I only ever made 1 purchase using that Coinbase account, which was to Nootropics Depot.
It was sometime last week. Purchase was fulfilled - although I got the above email earlier today.
Edit: And others - https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/63x7ik/challenges_with_nootropics_depot_payments/dfyg6av/
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic & Nootropics Depot
First off, fuck Coinbase! Second, I apologize to everyone affected by this. It seems a customer of ours opened a ticket with Coinbase for a missing transaction, and mentioned our name. I guess they then not only closed his account, but went back and closed the accounts of anyone that sent to that wallet address. We've obviously ceased use of that wallet address now. They can only link wallet addresses if someone tells them who owns it.
Coinbase should only be used as a way to purchase BTC. You should never send BTC directly to vendors from your Coinbase account. They can and do frequently shut down accounts for things they don't like. They are just like Paypal in that regard. They like to blame it on FinCEN, but it's their overzealous terms of service that is the real issue. However, I suppose FinCEN is the ultimate cause for them to be overzealous in their caution. The laws are vaguely written, and they err on the extreme side of caution to protect themselves. It's a shitty situation all around.
I always suggest people use an intermediate wallet, like Electrum, to send directly to any vendor. Never use the same account for purchasing BTC and paying for things with BTC. This goes for any vendor, not just us. They close down accounts all the time for other industries they deem "high risk."
For anyone looking for an alternative to Coinbase, Coingate is who I would suggest for the time being. They are not a US company, so they don't have to bow down to FinCEN. The fees are pretty much the same as well. The safest way to use Bitcoin at the moment is to avoid any US-based Bitcoin company.