Coinbase Website Blocked in Taiwan Amid Court-Ordered Restriction

Background

Coinbase users in Taiwan experienced an outage on October 14, 2026, due to a court-ordered block targeting the exchange's prediction markets, specifically related to Taiwan's upcoming presidential election.

Cause of the Outage

The cause of the outage was not a server meltdown or a botched software update. Instead, it was a legal outage, specifically a block ordered by the New Taipei District Court.

Details of the Block

The block was issued under Taiwan's Public Officials Election and Recall Act. The order carries the reference number 115年度聲扣字第55號. Its stated concern was Coinbase's prediction markets. Those markets included events connected to Taiwan's upcoming presidential election.

The block appears to have targeted the web domain specifically. Access through the Coinbase mobile app reportedly remained unaffected, so users could keep trading without interruption. Coinbase's official status page listed both the website and the mobile app as operational, but noted delayed asset transfers on certain networks, including Celestia and Osmosis.

Background on Similar Cases

Coinbase is not the first platform to land in this particular penalty box. Taiwan has previously used court-ordered blocks against election-related betting and prediction platforms. Polymarket, the best-known crypto prediction market, is one example of a platform hit with a similar restriction in Taiwan. For Coinbase, the episode lands as the exchange pushes further into prediction markets through a partnership with Kalshi, specifically related to Taiwan's upcoming presidential election.