You do enter into a contract with Coinbase though, by signing up you have to agree to that. Banks are different (highly regulated, but also house real hard curr

You do enter into a contract with Coinbase though, by signing up you have to agree to that. Banks are different (highly regulated, but also house real hard currency!) and simply losing a password isn't going to have the same effect. There was an interesting article about this in the NYT recently. Apparently arbitration clauses do have a decent chance of standing up to challenge. It's discomforting because when all the vendors in a space have the clause there is no way to have your right to trial. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/your-money/a-closer-look-at-the-arbitration-process-for-investors.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/19/your-money/a-closer-look-a... It's even more dubious in finance because you not only agree to arbitration, but you agree to arbitration by the private financial regulatory organization Finra. Think about that--to get a brokerage account you must agree to arbitration through Wall Street's self-funded watchdog. Unsurprisingly Wall Street has a great track record in winning.