Chile’s Public Bank Bancoestado Reopens Accounts of Cryptocurrency Exchanges
A lot of uncertainty has been brewing up in Chile’s cryptocurrency market over the past few months. Following the feud between the local banking institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges, Chile’s Court for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC – Tribunal de Defensa de la Libre Competencia) has ordered three of the country’s largest banks to re-open accounts of two cryptocurrency exchanges.
The three banks include Bancoestado, Scotiabank, and Itaú who were asked to reopen the bank accounts of two cryptocurrency exchanges Cryptomkt and Buda.com. On Thursday, a local publication La Tercera reported that Bancoestado, the only public bank in Chile, has “finalized the first [re]opening of a current account for Cryptomkt, as confirmed by Martín Jofré, founding partner of the cryptocurrency platform.”
After the court order arrived, the banks appealed the decision which was again rejected by the courts who re-confirmed that they must open bank accounts of the exchanges. However, the case still remains pending in the court.
According to another publication Jofré, when the banks had earlier announced the closing of crypto accounts of the exchanges “in five days they returned 99.8% of the funds to the clients of Cryptomkt, so now they will start from scratch.”
On the other hand, Diario Financiero has reported that the exchange “expects to resume the digital currency transaction market in Chile in the coming days.” The new outlet further revealed that Bancoestado, the only public bank in Chile has been in contact with Cryptomkt in order to re-open the the bank account for the exchange, On the other hand, Scotiabank and Itaú are expected to “appeal to the precautionary measure approved by the TDLC.”
Another publication MSN reported that Buda.com has still not confirmed whether their bank account will be reopened. The exchange has indicated that following the court’s order earlier this month, the exchange will continue to “completely discredit the accusations presented by the banks in their brief, Chilean Bank Reopens Accounts of Cryptocurrency Exchangeswhich demonstrate a serious ignorance of our business and the economic institutions that support our activity.”
On Friday, May 25th, the news outlet La Tercera quoted Bravo law firm explaining that one more left with the bank is to take the matter to the Supreme Court. However, “even if that happens, they must make effective the reopening [of crypto exchanges’ bank accounts] ordered by the TDLC.”