Redditors threaten to show up to Coinbase headquarters with guns

Well this is frightening.

Reacting to the news that Coinbase account holders had been mistakenly overcharged (in some cases, thousands of dollars), one individual took to Reddit to suggest a troubling solution: Show up at the cryptocurrency exchange's headquarters with guns. And the person was initially met with at least some support.

The thread has since been locked from comments by Reddit — with some commenters claiming to have reported the threats to law enforcement — but it's still available to the public. Even as Reddit's own policies appear to prohibit violent content.

The threats come at a turbulent time in Bitcoin's history, with the price of a single bitcoin swinging from above $16,000 to below $8,000 to back up to its current level of around $10,000 all in the course of a few months. During that time, talk of cryptocurrency has taken over our culture — suffusing itself into the daily lives of many and generating a cult-like obsessiveness in hodlers in the process. As the threats made today on Reddit show, that has some serious ramifications.

"Anyone want to show up at the Coinbase headquarters with guns and hold them at gun point until they refund us," asked the redditor under the name bombodail. "I think that might be the only way to get the money back."

Other users quickly jumped in, saying they knew the comment was a joke, but that it wasn't funny — especially in light of Wednesday's school shooting in Florida. That's when bombodail clarified that he or she was not, in fact, joking.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"I'm kinda serious though," bombodail insisted. "I'm sure that if their lives were on the line, the idiots at Coinbase would get their act together pretty quickly."

Importantly, it should be noted that Coinbase isn't even responsible for the mistaken withdraws. In a Friday joint statement from Visa and Worldpay, the companies clarified just what exactly had gone down.

"This issue was not caused by Coinbase," the statement read in bold. "Worldpay and Coinbase have been working with Visa and Visa issuing banks to ensure that the duplicate transactions have been reversed and appropriate credits have been posted to cardholder accounts. All reversal transactions have now been issued, and should appear on customers’ credit card and debit card accounts within the next few days."

That Coinbase was not in fact at fault for the over charges doesn't lessen the concern that at least one Redditor in addition to bombodail appeared to have violence on the mind. When that user commented "Let's go," bombodail responded that he or she wouldn't want to harm employees, but would target the CEO.

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Numerous Redditors have posted that they've reached out to law enforcement and reported the threats. "Contacting FBI, SF police," wrote the user mrblaq. "Have a bad day, idiot."

We've reached out to Reddit in an attempt to determine if it is aware of the threats, and if law enforcement has been contacted. We've received no response. Notably, the company's own policies appear to prohibit this kind of content.

"Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people," the policy reads, "likewise, do not post content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals."

We did manage to get in touch with Coinbase, however the spokesperson replied that the company "can’t comment on anything security related."

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a joint statement from Visa and Worldpay clarifying that Coinbase is not at fault for the mistaken transactions. Reddit's policy on violent content has also been added, and some comments from Reddit user bombodail have been removed.