Locked Out of Coinbase: Why Are Wyoming's Bitcoin Users Still Waiting?

For over two years, Coinbase users in Wyoming have been unable access their cryptocurrency.

"I'd venture to guess I lost $100,000 to this bullshit law," one resident complained on Reddit.

It was out of the blue, too, when in June 2015 the U.S.-based exchange suddenly suspended services for Wyoming residents. This was after state regulators clarified that Coinbase, in fact, fell under its Money Transmitter Act, and as such, needed to hold fiat currency reserves for all digital assets held on consumer's behalf.

Finding the requirements too challenging and costly to comply with, Coinbase pulled out of the state. And a handful of users that were residents lost access to their accounts before they were able to move their cryptocurrency off the platform.
It's been a bumpy road for those customers, one that seemed to smooth out in March of this year, when a package of blockchain business-friendly bills was passed, one of which exempted cryptocurrency exchanges from the fiat reserve requirement.

Yet a month later, Coinbase has yet to restore services in the state and reunite Wyoming residents with their crypto.

"People couldn't get hold of customer service," Caitlin Long, the co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, which pushed for the legislative package, told CoinDesk.

And while Coinbase is one of the most law-abiding and highly respected exchanges in the industry, this isn't much of a surprise.

The exchange's image has suffered greatly over the past couple years as its customer support buckled under the pressure of mass adoption. From lackluster uptimes to disabling the accounts of customers on vacation, Coinbase has struggled to keep its reputation clean from its user's standpoint - even after its $100 million raise in August.
And in Wyoming, former users of the exchange are driving hours to attend the coalition's meetings to share their Coinbase horror stories.

While Coinbase hasn't given the word of when it might reopen services to Wyoming residents, the state banking commissioner, Albert Forkner told CoinDesk that Coinbase representatives have expressed excitement about the prospect of returning to the Cowboy State.

"They'll be looking into the business plan to get accounts reopened in Wyoming," Forkner said. "It shouldn't take too long."

But some of the locals are getting restless.

"If a company is going to be a custodian of customers' assets, then it has an obligation to communicate with those customers," Long said, adding:

"Now there is no excuse, and it comes down to whether Coinbase wants to do right by its customers or not."