Chase Bank, JP Morgan’s consumer bank, has announced that crypto payments for UK customers will be banned starting next month.
Summary
Chase Bank bans crypto payments for UK customers
Chase Bank, JP Morgan’s consumer bank, announced that starting next month it will no longer allow crypto payments for its UK customers.Â
Basically, Chase Bank has decided that it will reject all payments from its customers in the UK, if only if it suspects that such payments are related to cryptocurrencies.
Starting 16 October, customers will in fact receive a declined transaction notification if they attempt to make a cryptocurrency-related transaction via debit card or outgoing wire transfer.
JP Morgan’s consumer bank also stressed that if its customers want to make crypto payments, they are free to choose another bank:
“If you’d still like to invest in crypto assets, you can try using a different bank or provider instead – but please be cautious, as you may not be able to get the money back if the payment ends up being related to fraud or a scam.”
Chase Bank bans crypto payments in UK to avoid scams
Chase Bank has opted to ban cryptocurrency-related payments in the UK, with the aim of keeping people’s money safe.
Not surprisingly, this stance by the bank, comes at the same time as the rise of cryptocurrency scams against people in the UK. Here is what Chase Bank wrote about it:
“We’ve seen an increase in the number of crypto scams targeting UK consumers, so we have taken the decision to prevent the purchase of crypto assets on a Chase debit card or by transferring money to a crypto site from a Chase account.”
According to data from the UK agency Action Fraud, losses incurred by UK consumers due to cryptocurrency-related fraud increased by more than 40% over the previous year, exceeding £300 million for the first time.
ByBit also distances itself from the UK
Recently, crypto-exchange ByBit also announced that as of next month it will suspend its operations in the United Kingdom due to new regulations in the blockchain sphere.Â
Basically, as of 8 October, new UK rules on crypto advertising and promotion will come into effect, requiring cryptocurrency-related companies to be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in order to post ads and communications.
Apparently ByBit is not on that register and therefore any possibility for the crypto-exchange to promote its business in the UK would be ruled out.
That is why ByBit has decided that, as of 1 October, all new customers will not be able to open new accounts if they are from the UK. Whereas, precisely from 8 October, existing UK customers will no longer be able to deposit new funds or create new contracts or increase their positions.
The only thing that ByBit will allow UK customers, will be the ability to close or reduce their positions and the withdrawal of their funds from the platform.
