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05-Feb-2018<br />

Bitcoin price LIVE: Bitcoin sinks to $7k as Lloyds Bank bans credit card crypto buys<br />

EXPRESS (Online)<br />

Click to open<br />

BITCOIN'S price sunk to an overnight low of $7,892 as week begins with <strong>news</strong> that UK<br />

banking giant Lloyds Bank will ban its customers from buying Bitcoin on their credit cards.<br />

The ban starts today and applies to all Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA<br />

customers.<br />

7am GMT UPDATE<br />

Bitcoin is currently down at $7,940 on the day so far after UK high-street bank Lloyds<br />

banned all cryptocurrency payments on its credit cards.<br />

The ban extends to other household names in the banking giant's credit card family<br />

including Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA.<br />

Wallet holders would have been hoping for a better start to the week but <strong>news</strong> of another<br />

mainstream finance firm being spooked by price volatility and regulatory threats means that<br />

other credit cards retailers around the world will be studying the fallout from Lloyds' ban.<br />

The Lloyds group has over eight million credit card customers and the ban stems from the<br />

fear that customers began buying cryptocurrencies to make a quick profit in the run-up to<br />

Christmas.<br />

However, with the price now significantly below the mark many UK buyers paid for their<br />

cryptocurrencies, Lloyds' customers are now servicing a debt much higher than the worth of<br />

of the digital tokens in their wallets.<br />

Lloyds is concerned about its exposure to crypto-risk as it could end up footing the bill for<br />

unpaid debts should the price continue to fall.<br />

A Lloyds spokeswoman told the BBC: "We continually review our products and procedures<br />

and this is part of that."<br />

A number of US credit card firms have also banned crypto purchases on credit cards.<br />

Bank of America began blocking cryptocurrency purchases on Friday while JPMorgan did<br />

the same on Saturday.<br />

Citigroup will soon stop cryptocurrency purchases on credit, following on from Capital One<br />

and Discover.<br />

All of the top five credit card issuers in the US have now announced or implemented bans,<br />

according to Fortune.<br />

Live reporting through the day, below...

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