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When users share any content through Coinbase services, they grant Coinbase a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, sublicensable, and transferable license to use, reproduce, modify, distribute, and translate that content for operating, improving, developing, and promoting its services.
This analysis describes what Coinbase's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision grants Coinbase a license to user-submitted content that is perpetual and survives account termination, and includes sublicensing and transfer rights that permit Coinbase to extend these permissions to third parties. The scope covers all user-submitted content including communications.
The updated terms establish procedures for handling protocol upgrades and define Coinbase's role in migrating customer assets to new versions. Under the revised language, by maintaining a Coinbase account, customers are deemed to have instructed Coinbase to conduct Coinbase Supported Migrations on their behalf at times and in manner Coinbase solely determines appropriate. The agreement further states that Coinbase shall not be liable or responsible for any loss resulting from inability to transfer Digital Assets during a migration or from the Asset Transformation itself. This expands Coinbase's authority to act without advance notice while eliminating liability for migration-related losses.
View change record →The updated terms now explicitly disclose Coinbase's fee structure for California residents, establishing a $10 maximum fee for transactions under $200 and a 6% maximum for larger transactions, though actual fees displayed at checkout may be lower based on payment method, order size, market conditions, and location. The revised agreement also clarifies that virtual currency transactions may be irreversible and provides links to procedures for reporting unauthorized transactions, updating contact information, and accessing transaction receipts. Coinbase commits to providing California residents at least 14 days' prior notice of material changes to fees or terms affecting their accounts.
View change record →The updated terms eliminate language that previously allowed Coinbase to restrict your withdrawals if you designated USDC as Secured USDC and to comply with third-party secured party instructions without your consent. Under the revised agreement, Coinbase will not transfer, loan, or otherwise handle your Supported Digital Assets except as required by law or as you instruct. This means the One Card Secured USDC mechanism is no longer integrated into the core asset protection clause, and users no longer face withdrawal restrictions or loss of instruction authority tied to that designation. If you currently hold Secured USDC under a separate One Card cardholder agreement, that agreement remains in effect but is no longer cross-referenced in the main User Agreement's asset protection section.
View change record →⚠ The perpetual content license described in Section 6.4.1 will apply to all user-submitted content as written, including after account closure
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"When you share Your Content through the Services, you retain your intellectual property rights in Your Content and you provide us with the following license to use Your Content: by using our Services you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, perpetual, and transferable license to host, publish, display, perform, reproduce, copy, distribute, communicate, modify, reformat, translate, or otherwise use Your Content (including your text, images, video, graphics, audio, files, communications, and any other content you provide) to operate, improve, develop, and promote our Services.Excerpt from Coinbase's User Agreement
1. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Broad content licensing provisions in consumer platforms interact with consumer protection frameworks and, depending on the nature of content submitted, may engage privacy regulations including CCPA in California. The FTC has expressed interest in the scope of data and content use permissions in consumer agreements. GDPR would engage for EU users, but this agreement is US-specific. 2. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The perpetual and sublicensable nature of the license is notable for a financial services platform where users may submit sensitive personal or financial communications. The scope of the license is broad, covering all content including user communications, though the stated use purpose is limited to operating, improving, developing, and promoting services. 3. JURISDICTION FLAGS: California's CCPA and the California Consumer Privacy Rights Act may provide additional rights with respect to personal information embedded in user-submitted content. Users should be aware that the perpetual nature of the license means it survives account closure. 4. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: The sublicensable and transferable nature of the license means Coinbase may extend content use rights to third-party service providers, successors, or acquirers without additional user consent, subject to the stated purpose limitation. 5. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should evaluate whether content submitted by users in the course of financial transactions or account communications contains personal information that is subject to data protection obligations independent of the intellectual property license, and whether the license scope interacts with applicable privacy law requirements.
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This provision grants Coinbase a license to user-submitted content that is perpetual and survives account termination, and includes sublicensing and transfer rights that permit Coinbase to extend these permissions to third parties. The scope covers all user-submitted content including communications.
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