Coinbase Reviews 

Case #26552105

Coinbase is using classic bait and switch tactics to harvest personal data and deposits under false pretenses.

They lure you in with a €30 referral bonus, wait until you’ve submitted your passport and made a deposit, and then deem you ineligible without providing a single reason.

Multiple agents confirmed my eligibility, yet they still refuse to honor the promotion.

I have officially filed formal reports with the relevant authorities and will be taking them to the European Small Claims Court.

If you value your data and your money, stay away from this company, otherwise you will regret it big time. Do not fall for the high ratings, the reality of Coinbase is very ugly!

I fulfilled all requirements and even their customer service confirmed it and asked me to wait, but Coinbase now refuse to pay out and refuse to explain anything. Their escalation team response to to my complaint as below:

[Reply] Case #26552105

Thank you for your patience while we completed our review.

After a thorough review, your account is not eligible for payout for this referral. Unfortunately, we are unable to share further details regarding the reason for this decision.

We understand this may not be the outcome you were hoping for, and we appreciate your interest in our referral campaign.

Regards,

Coinbase Support

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Case 26552105

I joined Coinbase exclusively through a personal invitation link that explicitly promised a €30 Bitcoin reward. After completing every required step, the platform now conveniently claims I am "not eligible" because they suddenly cannot "find" the referral.

This is a deceptive bait-and-switch tactic from a supposedly reliable platform. I have screenshots clearly showing the invitation was recognized at sign-up, yet their support refuses to acknowledge this evidence and hides behind automated eligibility excuses.

Avoid this platform if you expect them to honor their own promotional terms. They are misleading customers to gain sign-ups and then failing to deliver on their promises.

Pretty frustrated with Coinbase right now.

Before referring my friend, I actually reached out to Coinbase support to make sure I understood the referral bonus rules. I was told by a support agent that my friend only needed to deposit $10 and make a trade, and then I’d get the reward.

So that’s exactly what we did. Then today I talk to support again and suddenly I’m told my referral is invalid because the first trade was supposed to be $30 CAD, not $10 — and that there’s nothing they can do.

That makes no sense to me. The only reason this happened is because I was given the wrong info by Coinbase’s own employee. I followed what I was told, and now I’m being penalized for it.

If Coinbase can’t give consistent answers about something as basic as their referral program, that’s a big problem. Definitely makes me hesitant to trust their promotions or their support going forward.

I sent my referral link to my friend’s text number. I watched my friend click the link, sign up, deposit $50, buy $50XRP, and it’s been two weeks and still no $30 BTC for either of us.
I opened a case almost two weeks ago and still no resolution in sight. The pathetic customer service chats are not helpful and they repeat over and over that they know how I’m feeling, that they have the case with the escalation team but that I must be patient to hear from them!!! Asinine company and customer service , not to mention dishonest in a basic service.

Support is a bunch of shitty timewasters, changing topics dont want to go any further with my request about not given referral bonus. Asking several pointless questions leaving the chat open and ghosted.

Referral program is a scam!!

I referred 5 friends, none of us received our rewards. Customer service are just saying the same thing again again,"be patient". Agent Saswat promised me that it will be done by today but nothing was done... ( case 23880612) ( I contacted many other agent and all the same response).

The way the pseudo support chat agents try to divest, demotivate and force to let go by a customer who did not get the referral bonus due, is disgusting.
No support agent knows and is blandly unaccountable for the promises and declarations of the previous agent, which makes you feel that no one remembers your problem for a second after you click off the chat balloon with the agent. You have to repeat yourself, tell them again and again, and they still respond with fixed text formulas, why do you even set the maximum time for granting a bonus at 4 working days, when anyway, exceeding this deadline does not cause any consenquences and the only thing the customer can do is to graciously wait until someone may want to raise the issue.

Coinbase runs a referral program that they don’t pay on. I referred a friend who met all the eligibility requirements and neither one of us got paid. After going round and round with them, they refused to pay. Seems like fraud to me.

Misleading Referral Program & Unethical Practices

I participated in Coinbase's referral program, following all the stated requirements to receive the promised rewards. However, despite my referees completing the necessary steps—including verification and transactions—I was later informed that I did not qualify due to vague and undisclosed criteria.

I had also guided other users into completing their referral rewards and they have all received their rewards accordingly. Coinbase’s handling of referral rewards appears to be deliberately biased against those who bring in a higher number of referrals. Despite following all the stated requirements, I received nothing, while another user with fewer referrals was fully rewarded. This pattern suggests that Coinbase may be selectively denying payouts to those who have successfully referred more people, possibly to minimize their payout obligations while still benefiting from the increased platform activity. Such unethical behavior raises serious concerns about their referral program being a bait-and-switch scheme rather than a genuine incentive.

Customer support initially confirmed that I would receive my rewards, only to later deny them with inconsistent justifications. Meanwhile, others who did not even verify their accounts received their full bonuses. To make matters worse, Coinbase introduced new "eligibility conditions" that were never outlined in their terms and conditions, such as an unexplained "email age score" used to reject rewards.

This company misleads users with deceptive promotions, contradicts its own support agents, and fails to honor its commitments. If you're considering using Coinbase for any incentive programs, be warned—there is no guarantee they will honor their own terms.

To make matters worse, Coinbase charges some of the highest platform fees in the industry while randomly freezing accounts and assets without warning or proper justification. Their referral program appears to be nothing more than a scheme to encourage users to deposit and trade—generating high fees for Coinbase—only to deny them their promised rewards at the end. This predatory behavior takes advantage of users and destroys any trust in their platform.

A company of this scale should not be misleading its users with ever-changing terms, nor should it fail to honor its own promotions. If Coinbase cannot maintain a fair and trustworthy system, how can users have confidence in their platform?

I strongly urge others to be cautious when engaging with Coinbase’s promotions, as their customer service provides inconsistent information, and there appears to be no accountability when they fail to deliver on their promises.

Would not recommend. Stay away.

Look up their coinbase referral rewards on reddit and you woudnt think twice to walk away !

Terrible Experience – Hidden Fees, Useless Support, and Scammy Referrals

I strongly advise against using Coinbase. Their fees are exorbitant and often not clearly disclosed until after the transaction is completed. It feels intentionally misleading, especially for new users who might not realize how much they’re losing to fees.

Customer service is equally disappointing—slow, unhelpful, and often automated responses that go in circles without solving anything. If you ever run into an issue, good luck getting actual help.

To top it off, their referral rewards are a total scam. I referred a friend under the exact terms they outlined, yet neither of us received the promised bonus. Support gave vague excuses and never resolved it.

There are far better platforms out there that are more transparent and actually respect their users. Stay away from Coinbase.

Coinbase is a shady company that jumps on the opportunity to profit off customers with enticing referral reward schemes. I signed up with Coinbase in january using a referral link, hoping to get my referral rewards. When I initially signed up for Coinbase, I was not told that there was another account under another email that I supposedly created.
After the stipulated deadline to receive the rewards passed, I contacted Coinbase support to question why my sign up and referral rewards had yet to arrive. Coinbase support responded promptly, asking me to verify my id, proof of address and Singpass information. After doing so, I was promised that I would receive the rewards in 30 days time. While waiting for the 30 days to be up, I referred another 8 people, which increased the total expected reward to S$792.
Today, after the 30 days has passed, I contacted Coinbase support again, who told me that I apparently had a duplicate account and that was against their terms of service and I would hence not receive a single cent.
This was quite surprising to me, considering how Coinbase was willing to allow me to refer all these people to the app, deposit money and buy crypto, all the while I was apparently violating their terms of service?
It seems to me that Coinbase will capitalize on any opportunity to gain market share and new users' deposits without having to pay them out. Please consider using other crypto exchanges, as this company can and will take advantage of you wherever and whenever they can.

Coinbase scammed me and my referral to get our personal information. They have it in the app where you can “invite friends” and both of you receive $20 in bitcoin. After the person signs up, uploads their license, add a payment method and purchase crypto for $20. She did everything on 1/20/25. They have her money on hold until 1/28/25 so she can’t get her money back after they lied to us. And the crypto can’t be returned during the wait. Both of us received emails saying “your reward is here” but nothing is in either of our accounts. I received the same email saying the reward is here yesterday as well. She used my referral link. And when you click on it, it shows $20 for me and her in bitcoin after she does all of the above that they require. I reached out but Coinbase doesn’t have a phone number to call. It says their number is only for outgoing calls. The email response says their email address is not monitored and to go online. The online chat is a bot, no human ever answers. When I selected request a call back, I was emailed a code. Someone called at 1:01am the other day when I was asleep. They had no intentions of reaching me. And this is 2 days after my initial contact. 2 days ago, I had to go to instagram to get a reply from a human! At first they said wait 48 hours after she did everything and let them know if it’s still not there. I did that and then they claimed they needed my address verified and only accepted my bank statement. After it was verified, now they’re saying “you’re not eligible for this feature on Coinbase”. I repeatespy asked why am I not eligible? They keep sending me a link to the website but no explanation (all of this is on instagram messenger). If I’m ineligible, why wouldn’t she at least receive her $20 in bitcoin? Why didn’t they tell me that when I first reached out? There’s absolutely no reason I shouldn’t be eligible for the reward. Coinbase scammed us just to get our personal information. My referral is not into crypto or stocks and only signed up for me to get my bitcoin. She does not want the account and wants her $20 back since they are liars. They have both of our social security numbers now. This is fraud! It is false advertising to consumers and lying. I gave her the $20 to pay them so it’s my money that was used via her checking account. Either they give us both the $20 in bitcoin that was promised or refund the $20 they forced her to pay for rewards we did not get. They are liars! And have lawsuits already!

I have been waiting for over 2 months for my referral bonus and every agent i talked to keepa assuring me that i will get my bonus with 7 days then they tell me i need to verify my address so i do that and the agent tells me that now ill get in within 24hours and that comes and goes. Then they tell me to wait 7 days thats comes and goes and here i am 2 months later still no referral bonus i used to really like coinbase but this has ruined it for me with all the lies and still no 20$ bonus but yet my referral got theres makes 0 sense to me and im fed up with it all i want is my referral bonus and then ill be happy and this review would have never happened but i cant wait anymore its ridiculous. No case number or anything my name is jacob roach.

The site is okay but customer service is crap along with they still won't give me me referral bonus after hours with them online on multiple occasions just to be put on standby and them never doing anything. They still owe me and more than likely won't payout even though I have proof and have shown them

I have never received a single credit for all of the advertisements through my sign up link for coinbase. Started with them in 2017, never received a single dime of Bitcoin or anything else for all of my advertising for them. They used to advertise $100 when somebody spent $100 through your referral link. I'm not going to say how many people have not only viewed my link, but also signed up. No one spent $100? That part of them is a scam. For sure.

They rob you with the fees as well. Crypto does not cost that much to buy and sell.
I'm owed so much by them. Not these little dust learning earn transactions that they do. My first review was from 4 years ago. They just responded to it a couple of hours ago. I'm going to leave it at that.

Dishonest company.
Coinbase are one of the biggest exchangesso my review won't make a difference.
But they are dishonest and I have actually lost more money than I needed to due to their dishonest marketing tactics.
There is no way of getting them to admit they were the last stage in referral (TopCashback), even with screenshots showing the URLs and journey.
So they can say they weren't referred to via TopCashback even if you have screenshots, just so they don't have to pay £30 cashback out. It relies on their honesty, which they don't have.

It appears that Coinbase can make it’s own rules, and delete or claim that I signed up without a referral link. That’s at leat what they claim after I contacted them a 2nd time. Because the first message were just a standardised message, there dit not give any answers. And I have no way to prof that’s its incorrect. So I’m not allowed to get the bitcoin bonus…

Company did not pay out referral fee as advertised. How is that not fraud? Take responsibility and honor your referrals.

I did not get money from a referral bonus. I contacted customer service. They basically said, "tough luck." I was extremely frustrated with their response. They would do nothing to help me.