On 14th March, 2019, the British multinational investment bank and financial services company Barclays announced that it would be banning credit card purchases of cryptocurrency. The news sent shockwaves through the crypto community, with many people left wondering – why did Barclays ban Binance?
There are a few possible reasons for why Barclays took this decision. Firstly, cryptocurrency is a highly volatile market, and credit card companies are typically reluctant to get involved in markets where there is a high risk of loss.
Secondly, credit card companies earn a lot of their revenue from fees charged on transactions. Cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance typically charge very low fees (or even no fees at all), which means that credit card companies would earn less money on transactions made on these platforms.
It is also worth noting that Barclays is not the only credit card company to have banned cryptocurrency purchases. In 2018, both Visa and Mastercard stopped allowing their cards to be used to buy crypto.
So it’s possible that Barclays’ decision was simply in line with the policies of other major financial institutions.
Whatever the reasons behind Barclays’ decision, it’s clear that the move was not welcomed by the crypto community. Binance is one of the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, and the news that its users would no longer be able to use credit cards to make trades on the platform was met with dismay by many in the crypto world.
It remains to be seen how long Barclays’ ban on Binance will last, but for now, it looks like crypto traders will have to find another way to fund their accounts if they want to continue using one of the world’s most popular exchanges.