Almost a decade after acquiring Bitcoin on Coinbase, NBA icon Kevin Durant has regained access to his assets due to a successful account recovery.
This news was shared via an X post from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Thursday evening. Armstrong stated, “We got this fixed. Account recovery complete!”
Durant, a 15-time NBA All-Star set to play for the Houston Rockets this season, recounted the tale of his lost Bitcoin (BTC) at the annual Gameplan Summit in Santa Monica on Tuesday.
Joining his agent, Rich Kleiman, Durant revealed to host Andrew Ross Sorkin that around 2014 or 2015, he learned about Bitcoin through YouTube videos and nudged his agent to explore it.
Kleiman recounted how they reached out to their business manager, who promptly dismissed the idea. However, about a year later, after hearing about “Bitcoin” multiple times at a party hosted by a16z co-founder Ben Horowitz, they decided to invest the very next day.
“Luckily,” Kleiman noted, “we’ve managed to find his Coinbase account info, so we’ve never sold anything, and his Bitcoin has soared.”
Forgetting your Coinbase password leads to being locked out of your account, and without recovery details like two-factor authentication codes or your email, access to the crypto stored there becomes impossible.
Neither Durant nor his agent, who were early investors in Coinbase through their joint business venture Thirty Five Ventures, have shared how much Bitcoin they initially purchased.
In 2016, Bitcoin prices ranged from approximately $400 at the beginning of the year to $1,000 by the end, according to data from CoinGecko. Since the close of 2016, when Bitcoin traded at $998, its value has skyrocketed over 11,470%, currently landing at $115,480 as of this writing.
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Coinbase customer service under scrutiny again
Durant’s account recovery prompted feedback from users facing similar challenges but with varying outcomes.
Some pointed out that they have been locked out of their accounts for years without any success in recovery. “You have thousands of people who are locked out of their accounts, Brian. The same people your customer service team neglected & compromised their data,” stated X user Erik Astramecki.
On Friday, Armstrong addressed user concerns by reposting a thread from one of its customer support leads discussing the enhancements being implemented.
“We’re prioritizing improvements in customer support — enhancing products to reduce the need for support and providing a quicker, higher-quality experience when help is needed,” Armstrong said.
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