BofA bars customers from using credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies
Bank of America announced Friday that it would begin flagging and declining transactions made with credit cards to known cryptocurrency exchanges, Bloomberg News reported.
A spokeswoman for the nation's second-largest credit card issuer told Bloomberg that the bank would begin declining such transactions as early as Friday. It was unclear if the ban extends to all purchases made with Bank of America accounts, including debit cards.
The Charlotte-based bank “will begin declining credit card transactions with known cryptocurrency exchanges," according to a memo sent to staff today.
Bank of America did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill.
Cryptocurrencies experienced one of the most volatile months on record last month when Bitcoin lost thousands of dollars in value in a matter of days.
Other credit card companies have also taken steps to prohibit consumers from using their cards to purchase cryptocurrencies. Capital One Financial Corp. and Discover Financial Services both do not support the transactions, according to Bloomberg, while the largest U.S. card issuer JPMorgan Chase & Co. still allows the transactions.
Earlier this week the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced an investigation into one of the biggest cryptocurrency trading platforms, Bitfinex. The move caused cryptocurrency markets to drop after a month of already record losses.
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/37...yptocurrencies