Kevin Durant #35 of the Phoenix Suns will face the Houston Rockets at the PHX Arena held in Phoenix, Arizona on March 30, 2025.
Chris Kodoto | Getty Images
NBA star Kevin Durant has regained access to Bitcoin a few years after being locked out of his Coinbase account.
“We’ve fixed this. Account recovery is complete,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a social media post Friday, responding to a tweet that Durant was being locked out of his account on a cryptocurrency exchange.
The message comes days after Durant and his agent Rich Clyman joked about the plight at CNBC’s Game Planning Conference in Los Angeles.
“This is just a process that we couldn’t understand,” Kleiman said Tuesday. “But Bitcoin continues to rise… so I think it’s just profiting us.”
Durant bought Bitcoin from Coinbase in 2016 shortly after hearing about tokens several times during dinner with his then-Gold Warriors teammate.
Bitcoin was trading between around $360 and $1,000 in 2016, according to Coingecko data. Currently, the digital assets are trading for around $116,000, according to the same cryptographic data provider.
Bitcoin since 2016
Durant and his agents, who are investor at Coinbase Global and promote business in the boardroom of sports and entertainment websites, did not reveal the size of basketball player Bitcoin Holdings on their trading platform.
The incident sparked a widespread discussion about Coinbase’s customer service, making it difficult for several users to get help from the company on social media to regain access to their accounts and troubleshoot other issues.
Their complaints form the latest demand for Coinbase to overhaul its support services. In May, Coinbase revealed that cybercriminals had bailed out some of their overseas customer support agents and leaked their personal data. In 2021, Coinbase clients expressed their dissatisfaction with the company’s new line of live phone support. One dissatisfied user told CNBC that the service was a “joking.”
On Friday, Armstrong addressed the latest concerns of users regarding the quality of the company’s support services.
“We’re focused on improving customer support on both ends. Few people need to improve our products, allowing us to provide a faster, higher quality experience,” Armstrong told X-Post on Friday.
Coinbase did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for additional comments on what steps it will take to improve customer service. Earlier this week, the company told CNBC it is offering a 24-hour assistance hotline for users, in addition to providing self-help resources for basic troubleshooting.
