Why doesn’t Coinbase work in Hawaii?

This all comes down to regulatory restrictions in Hawaii. Officials want Coinbase to hold fiat currency equal to the amount of cryptocurrency in their users’ accounts. So as of this writing, Coinbase would be required to hold $4,231 for every 1 Bitcoin owned by Coinbase users. Rather than tackle that burden, Coinbase asked users to close their accounts, and has blocked new accounts from being made.

Here’s an excerpt from the Coinbase website explaining why they shut down accounts…

“Although Coinbase securely maintains 100% of all customer funds on behalf of our customers, it is impractical, costly, and inefficient for us to establish a redundant reserve of fiat currency over and above customer digital currency secured on our platform.”

One solution for Hawaii residents is another online wallet called Kraken. Their support team told us that Hawaii user accounts are supported.