Bank of America and JP Morgan Ban Crypto Transactions on Credit Cards
The cryptocurrency mania has pulled many investors from across the globe in this new economy of virtual digital currencies. In this crypto mania, investors are seen putting a lot of their money into buying digital assets.
However, due to recent concerns of the credit risks that have emerged from this crazy buying spree, two major banks of the U.S JP Morgan and Bank of America have announced a ban on crypto purchases made through their credit cards.
A JP Morgan spokeswoman, Mary Jane Rogers, while speaking to Bloomberg said that the company wants to get itself associated with the credit risks with crypto transactions, and the bank has introduced a ban starting Saturday, Feb 3.
On the other hand, Bank of America has already started declining credit card transactions starting Friday, Feb 2, and according to a memo, the policy applies to all range of credits cards - personal or business cards. A company spokeswoman, Betty Riess said that this policy, however, doesn’t apply to transactions done through debit cards.
As per the reports from Bloomberg, Bank of America has sighted money-laundering concerns behind this regulatory decision and said that it wants to eliminate the potential for thieves in order to convert the stolen credit cards into cryptocurrency stashes.
Also one of the major concerns which both the banks hold is that customers will purchase more cryptocurrencies than what they can actually afford. In recent weeks, many other banks have steeply increased charges on crypto transactions made using credit cards.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which were on a free-fall till yesterday, are today seen breathing some fresh air as positive momentum sweeps back into the market. Over the past one month, there has been a significant correction in the crypto markets as the overall valuations of the crypto markets has slipped by 50% in terms of market cap, since the beginning of 2018.
Moreover, there is a lot of uncertainty amongst crypto investors due to several regulatory steps being taken by different countries in order to bring the madness over crypto trading under control. Cutting off card purchase could possibly further put a pressure on the market, and might be viewed as a way of discouraging crypto purchases.
It remains to be seen that in such a correcting market whether the investors would be doing bottom fishing and making new purchases or is it really the beginning of the downfall of crypto markets as predicted earlier by several eminent personalities across the globe.