CBA blocks credit card purchases of virtual currencies
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is following in the wake of others by stopping credit card purchases of virtual currencies.
As reported earlier this month, Lloyds, Bank of Scotland, Halifax, MBNA, Bank of America, Citigroup, Capital One, Discover and JP Morgan took similar action. Virgin Money followed that lot swiftly after.
CBA says virtual and cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin have “yet to meet a minimum standard of regulation, reliability, and reputation”.
It adds: “Due to the unregulated and highly volatile nature of virtual currencies, customers will no longer be able to use their CommBank credit cards to buy virtual currencies.”
Its customers can continue to buy and sell virtual currencies using other CBA transaction accounts, and their debit cards.
The restriction will also apply to Bankwest credit cards.
Upping the anti ante
This anti-crypto trend has become quite popular recently.
Regulators have been wading in as well. In India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says the nation wants to eliminate the use of digital currencies in criminal activities.
While the People’s Bank of China (the central bank) states it will block platforms related to cryptocurrency trading and initial coin offerings (ICOs).
And what about Bitcoin’s price today (16 February)? After falling below $6,000 ten days ago, the price of Bitcoin is now just above $10,000.
As a reminder, it began the year at $14,000, down from an all-time high of around $20,000 in December.
