Lloyds Banking Group on Monday joined major US banks in banning purchases of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies via credit card amid debt and security concerns.
An LBG spokesman said the ban was across its Lloyd Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and MBNA branded credit cards.
In a brief statement, he said LBG does “not accept credit card transactions involving the purchase of cryptocurrencies”.
Over the past few days, US lenders Bank of American, Citigroup and JPMorgan each introduced the same ban.
There is a concern that customers who bought bitcoin late last year when crytocurrencies in general surged in value have been left with big losses following massive declines in recent weeks.
On Monday, the price of bitcoin tumbled to $7,950, two months after breaking through the $20,000 mark.
It comes as China plans to stamp out all remaining cryptocurrency trading in the country by blocking access to overseas-based websites and removing related applications from app stores.
The international value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have plunged this year amid fears of a crackdown in Asia and concerns that many currencies’ rapid rise in value last year could reflect an bubble.
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Bitcoin ATMs show some potential, but for the ones I’ve tried, a passport scan is required and you also have to add in biometrics like a palm or iris scan which seems a bit invasive to me. I just use Bitcoin Gift Card (.org) to buy BTC and pay by Paypal. It takes a few days for the BTC gift cards to arrive through the mail, but otherwise works great.