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05-Feb-2018
Major Banks Ban Bitcoin Purchase With Credit Cards
RTTNews
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Banking majors around the world, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and
Lloyds Banking, have banned their customers from buying bitcoin, the highly volatile
cryptocurrency leader, or other cryptocurrencies with a credit card.
A JPMorgan Chase spokesperson reportedly cited the volatility and risk involved as the
reasons. It was last week, that reports said the bank allowed customers to buy
cryptocurrencies with its credit cards.
Citigroup said in a statement, "We have made the decision to no longer permit credit card
purchases of cryptocurrency. We will continue to review our policy as this market evolves."
Lloyds Banking Group has banned its customers from buying Bitcoin starting Monday. The
ban applies to the banking group's eight million credit card customers in Lloyds Bank, Bank
of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA.
The news came following the price of digital currencies falling falling severely, amid the
latest negative developments in the crypto market. These include ban from social media
giant Facebook, and India as well as other regulators around the world taking strong stance
against it. The price of bitcoin has more than halved from its all-time high around $20,000 in
mid-December 2017. No different are other major digital currencies.
According to coinmarketcap, bitcoin stands at $8,308 as of 12 am ET Monday, down 9.6
percent, with a marketcap of $139.96 billion. On Friday, bitcoin's value fell below $8,000
briefly. The currency's price in the beginning of last year was about $1000.
The second largest cryptocurrency, ethereum was down 11.13 percent to $851.40, with a
market cap of $82.94 billion.
Ripple was down 12.35 percent to $0.82 with a market cap of $32 billion.
Towards the end of 2017, the prices of all these cryptocurrencies had soared on huge
demand.
Capital One Financial had already decided to ban cryptocurrency purchases with its cards,
while Discover Financial Services since 2015 has prohibited such purchases.
by RTT Staff Writer
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