The crackdown on Bitcoin continues, even as its value plumments from its highs of a month ago. Over the weekend, most of the major U.S. credit card issuers have made it impossible for their clients to buy Bitcoin using plastic, including Bank of America, JPMorgan, Discover and Capital One. In the U.K., Lloyds Bank Group followed suit.
The move appears designed to prevent consumers from leveraging Bitcoin purchases with the hope of paying off the interest through a rise in the value of the new currency. But it also is likely to be connected to concerns over their own liability if their clients were to lose large amounts of money in such speculation. It’s also been suggested that banks could turn out to be responsible for ensuring that their clients aren’t using Bitcoin to launder money, a hassle they’d no doubt prefer to avoid. Last week, Facebook banned advertisements for digital currencies as regulators from various countries swooped to take at least partial control of how they can be and can’t be traded.
