Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Asks Twitter Followers if Their BofA Accounts Were Closed Because of Crypto Transactions

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong asked his 1.2 million followers on Twitter on Wednesday evening if any Coinbase customers that are Bank of America clients have had their accounts closed because of their transactions with the exchange.

Armstrong had become aware of stories circulating on Twitter about suspicious account closures at the banking giant, which some users believed were tied to their cryptocurrency activity.

While 19.3% answered Armstrong’s query “no,” a whopping 9%, which would translate into roughly 1,200 people given there were 13,746 respondents to the question as of press time, said “yes.” The rest didn’t participate in the poll but were solely interested in seeing the results.

Armstrong’s tweet comes after bitcoin layer-2 platform Stacks co-creator Muneeb Ali tweeted on Wednesday that his personal Bank of America bank account was closed without any reason given. Ali claims, however, that it was due to the transactions on Coinbase he made through the account to buy and sell bitcoin.

“This is war on bitcoin and crypto,” Ali tweeted. “We won’t stay silent.”

In an interview with CoinDesk, Ali said he deliberately positioned his Bank of America account as his only one where he carried out Coinbase transactions. "I knew that is where closure risk is," Ali said, noting he "kept other bank accounts 'clean.'"

Several people with similar cases of sudden account closures at Bank of America have used Twitter to share their frustration in recent weeks, though the closures were not necessarily tied to their crypto activity.

One user tweeted on Tuesday that their account was shut down without any notice or explanation, even after several attempts to reach a customer representative at the bank. The person had not made any crypto transactions, however, they told CoinDesk.

Bank of America did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story.

UPDATE (July 13, 16:43 UTC): Added quote from Ali.

UPDATE (July 14, 13:03 UTC): Added that Bank of America had not responded to a request for comment.