Various banks around the world prevent their customers from buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This is especially true when it comes to credit card transactions. It now seems Wells Fargo is the latest institution to impose this unwelcome rule on its customers.
Wells Fargo Makes Itself Even Less Popular
These times are very troublesome for banks. Not only are they under pressure from the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole, they are also struggling to turn a profit these days. As such, we have seen multiple instances in which banks have gotten sued for illicit activities, money laundering, and whatnot. Remaining afloat is challenging, even for the more established institutions out there.
One thing making matters worse for these financial institutions is that their customers are interested in getting exposed to cryptocurrency. People are looking to buy Bitcoin and other currencies using traditional financial methods. In a lot of cases, these consumers desire convenience first and foremost, which means they rely on the more convenient payment methods such as bank transfers. Exchanges which support credit and debit cards are still few in number.
For Wells Fargo customers, buying cryptocurrency through these convenient methods will prove challenging. The bank has made it clear it will no longer support crypto transactions using credit cards, which is in line with decisions made by most of its competitors in the past few months. Buying Bitcoin can still be done through other means, though, which means the impact will be minor, all things considered.
With banks further cracking down on these purchases, it seems the average person on the street will have a much harder time buying Bitcoin and other popular cryptocurrencies. Even so, there are numerous ways to bypass this ban on credit card transactions, even though such transactions will take longer to complete.
For the time being, Wells Fargo has not offered an official explanation as to why this decision was made at this time. Considering that some of its competitors have made the same decision in the past few months, it seems Wells Fargo is simply following suit regardless of whether or not it is a smart choice. Moreover, Visa began cracking down on all cryptocurrency activity recently, making it a lot more difficult for users to buy Bitcoin with credit cards in general.
Whether or not this decision will have any lasting impact on the cryptocurrency industry is a different matter altogether. One has to keep in mind Bitcoin has survived a lot worse prior to consumers being able to buy cryptocurrency with credit cards. There is no reason to believe this new development will hold the industry back in any significant manner. Granted, it is an unfortunate development, but it’s nothing that will cause any major disruption.
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