The major American credit card companies JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup have banned their customers from purchasing cryptocurrencies with credit cards. They say the potential costs are too risky and cannot be reliably estimated.
According to Bloomberg, JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup have decided to prohibit cryptocurrency purchases made with credit cards. J.P. Morgan Chase told CNBC:
At this time, we are not processing cryptocurrency purchases using credit cards, due to the volatility and risk involved.
Since the introduction of Bitcoin futures, the market has become highly volatile. The banks argue that transaction costs associated with trading cryptocurrencies have become unpredictable, making the related risk unacceptable.
The immediate ban applies to both retail and corporate cardholders. Customers of the named banks can still buy Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies using debit cards. Those purchases are debited immediately from the account, eliminating the banks’ exposure to the risk of being left holding the costs.
The Bitcoin price was just above €14,000 at the beginning of the year; a month later it stood at €7,340.21 at the time of editing (09:30). Persistent negative media coverage in recent weeks has unsettled the crypto market, and headlines such as “The Bitcoin bubble is bursting” appeared frequently.
However, a closer look at January’s price trends compared with previous years shows that this month often experiences a strong downward movement. Whether the causes are the Chinese New Year, year‑end bonus payments, or simply tax payments for the previous year remains unclear.
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