Coinbase is facing criticism on social media after it was discovered that the US-based exchange is restricting the accounts of users who access the platform via a VPN.
Yesterday, EthHub co-founder Eric Conner complained that Coinbase locked his account after he tried to send $25,000 in USDC. When Conner said it was apparent that his use of a VPN was behind the restriction, many users began to complain about the same VPN-related issues with Coinbase.
Today, Coinbase product designer Scott Shapiro said, “PSA: Don’t use a VPN to access Coinbase.”
He added, “Attackers always use VPNs, so our risk models take that as a negative sign even if you’re legitimately using your own account.”
Users on X, however, didn’t react well to the exchange’s VPN stance. One user said, “It’s our privacy right to use VPNs. If you’re telling us to not use VPN to access Coinbase, the choice is to just not use Coinbase.”
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Another posted, “This just shows your incompetence. Users should not have to disable their VPN to use your exchange. Period.” Kraken’s chief security officer said, “You are making some of your users choose between financial freedom and physical safety.”
Debanking dominated conversation on X this week with some comparing it to Coinbase’s VPN stance. The company’s CEO Brian Armstrong offered his take on the subject last Sunday, claiming that “anti-money laundering regulations have been a policy failure,” that costs roughly $213 billion each year and harms consumers.
Conner posted, “Wasn’t @brian_armstrong just talking about debanking???” after his account was frozen.
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However, not everybody took issue with Coinbase’s approach to the account freeze. Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz suggested that the company is just trying to protect users from hackers, while former Coinbase employee @LukeYoungblood agreed, stressing that Coinbase isn’t debanking him.
In response to Yanowitz, Conner called the approach “a lazy implementation,” saying, “There are plenty of better ways to handle this than just nuking my account.”
After regaining access to his account, Conner noted, “I’m lucky with my reach. Others, not so much…”
