Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Coinbase warns customers they may lose crypto if company goes bankrupt

Coinbase warns customers they may lose crypto if company goes bankrupt

Following an epic share price decline of more than 27% this week, Coinbase issued a stark warning to customers: Your crypto is at risk if the exchange goes bankrupt.

According to Coinbase's official website, the company has more than 98 million verified users. It is the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the United States.

Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong attempted to calm shareholders in a series of tweets one of which read: 'Your funds are safe at Coinbase, just as they’ve always been.'

Despite Armstrong's claims, in an SEC filing the company referred to customers as 'unsecured creditors' in the event that Coinbase went belly-up.

Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong attempted to calm shareholders in a series of tweets one of which read: 'Your funds are safe at Coinbase, just as they’ve always been'

Coinbase shares tumbled 30% on Wall Street after a regulatory filing by the company revealed any crypto it held for customers 'could be subject to bankruptcy proceedings'


This means that customers' crypto assets would be considered the property of Coinbase by bankruptcy administrators.

The SEC filing, Staff Accounting Bulleting 121, requires crypto platforms to include customer's crypto holdings as assets and liabilities on balance sheets.

Armstrong wrote on Twitter that the company is at 'no risk of bankruptcy' despite the filing, which he said was made so that company would be in compliance with SEC regulations.

The new regulation is designed to protect crypto traders by giving them more in-depth knowledge about the company's contingency plan in the event of bankruptcy.

Armstrong began his Twitter speech shortly after his company's earnings report was made public









Armstrong tweeted: 'This disclosure makes sense in that these legal protections have not been tested in court for crypto assets specifically, and it is possible, however unlikely, that a court would decide to consider customer assets as part of the company in bankruptcy proceedings even if it harmed consumers.'

In the first quarter of 2022, Coinbase posted a loss of $430 million amid a 19% drop in monthly users. The company has said that trading is likely to keep going down in the second quarter.

Another contributing factor has been the falling price of bitcoin.

At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin is $28,434.70, down 8% from yesterday. This is the first time bitcoin has fallen below $30,000 since July 2021.

Coinbase's shares, which tend to track the health of the wider crypto sector, have lost around 85 per cent of their value since its debut on Wall Street in April last year.

In their May 2022 earnings report, the company bragged about their first Super Bowl ad which came with the slogan: 'Less talk, more Bitcoin.'

The report says the ad reached 40 million households and generated millions of social media mentions 'resulting in significant improvements in our brand awareness, favorability, and consideration, among our target audience.'

Alesia Haas, chief financial officer of Coinbase Global Inc.


The ad cost the company $14 million and the day after Super Bowl Sunday, the company's share price fell nearly 2%, according to Reuters.

Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said on a call with analysts on May 11 that the company decided to spent money on 'diversifying product lines' rather than focus on profits, reports CNBC.

In January 2022, Brian Armstrong bought a five acre estate in Bel Air at a cost of $133 million.

According to Coinbase's earnings report, the company said that they hold $256 billion in crypto and fiat money on behalf of their customers.

When a user opens a Coinbase account and buys cryptocurrency, the company holds that crypto on the application's wallet. This 'means the individual is giving away at least part of their control over their own funds,' according to Fortune Magazine.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February, Coinbase announced in a statement that they had suspended the accounts of 25,000 Russian Coinbase wallets.

The statement accused those account holders of 'engaging in illicit activity, many of which we have identified through our own proactive investigations.'

Crypto exchanges do not have a federal protection such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that protects customers of traditional banks in the US.

In the first quarter of 2022, Coinbase posted a loss of $430 million amid a 19% drop in monthly users. The company has said that trading is likely to keep going down in the second quarter


The money that customers deposit at traditional banks is protected to the tune of $250,000, in the event that the bank in question goes bankrupt.

There is the option of personal cryptocurrency insurance for traders.

On Twitter, Armstrong issued an apology to shareholders for not being more open about the company's new SEC filing saying they 'didn't communicate proactively when the risk disclosure was added.'

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×