Why does a negative balance occur?
A negative balance occurs when you buy cryptocurrency or deposit money into your Coinbase account, but Coinbase has not received successful payment from either your bank or card issuer.
Let’s look at how this can happen:
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You make a transfer or purchase cryptocurrency using a bank account or debit card. Money or cryptocurrency is immediately credited to your Coinbase account for this transaction
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Your bank reverses the deposit or purchase and the cash value of this transfer/purchase is returned to your bank or card issuer
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This reversal creates a negative balance on your Coinbase account. This negative balance will always equal the cash value of your original transaction even if the cryptocurrency value fluctuates
Your Coinbase account will be restricted until your negative balance is resolved
How to resolve your negative balance
You can make a payment to resolve this negative balance here.
You will see a yellow pop-up banner that lets you know a transaction was reversed and a button to Make Payment. Selecting Make Payment will allow you to select one of your payment methods from a drop down menu.
There are two options to consider:
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You may select your Coinbase digital wallet to make a payment. You can also transfer crypto from an external wallet to your Coinbase digital wallet. If you’d like to send cryptocurrency to Coinbase, you can find your Coinbase addresses here
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You may select a linked bank account, or link a new bank account if you don’t currently have a bank account linked to Coinbase.
Due to restrictions placed by most card issuers, debit cards cannot be used to resolve a negative balance on a Coinbase account.
