Is Bank of America Freezing Coinbase Linked Accounts? Coinbase CEO Responds

With the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapping lawsuits on crypto giants Binance and Coinbase, banking institutions have become wary of doing business with these firms.

In the latest development, Coinbase’s chief executive officer (CEO) Brian Armstrong has started a Twitter poll on whether Bank of America is closing accounts that transact with the exchange. The Coinbase chief posed the question late Wednesday, July 12, while tagging Bank of America, adding that he was “curious if this is the issue”.

Has @BankofAmerica closed your account due to transactions with @coinbase? Curious if this is the issue.

— Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) July 13, 2023

Armstrong started the poll in response to Muneeb Ali’s claim that his personal bank account was closed after 15 years. Ali, the co-founder of blockchain firm Stacks, said he was not given any explanation, but he believed it was because he used the account for Bitcoin transactions with Coinbase.

The poll received more than 8,500 responses so far. Approximately 9% of the respondents answered “yes,” indicating that their accounts were closed due to transactions with the largest US crypto exchange. On the other hand, around 20% voted “no.”

Banks around the world have become more uncertain about the crypto industry due to a significant decline in value, multiple instances of digital asset failures, and stricter regulations imposed by authorities.

Coinbase Stock Price Rally

This week has been quite fruitful for all investors holding the Coinbase stock. Earlier on Tuesday, July 11, the Coinbase (COIN) stock price surged by a whopping 16% shooting past $91.

Over the past month, the COIN stock has gained a staggering 65%, despite the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapping a lawsuit on the exchange in early June. The COIN stock price has rallied all the way from $50 to now at more than $85, over the past month.

One of the biggest reasons is financial giant BlackRock choosing Coinbase as the preferred custodian for its spot Bitcoin ETF. However, soon as the Coinbase stock rallied to its 2023-high on Tuesday, Ark Invest offloaded 135,152 Coinbase (COIN) shares worth more than $12 million. This is the first time that ARK Innovation ETF has sold COIN stocks since July 26 of the previous year.