The Strategist

British banks do not believe in crypto currencies



10/25/2017 - 14:53



According to the British media, local companies working in the crypto-currencies industry, are complaining that the British banks do not want to open accounts for them in the country. Because of this, British crypto-currency companies are forced to open accounts outside of Britain, for example in Poland, Bulgaria or Gibraltar.



According to the Financial Times (FT), the current situation "raises questions about whether Britain wants to become the world center of a rapidly developing financial and technological industry". The publication refers to information from British crypto-currency companies complaining that local banks are not eager to open accounts for them in the country. "No one will give you a bank account in the UK," James Godfrey of BlockEx, who trades in various digital assets, including crypto-currencies, told the FT. According to him, Metro Bank recently closed the company's account in the country, forcing to use services of the Bulgarian bank to continue trading. This led BlockEx to rethink the expediency of his stay in the UK and move to Canada's Toronto.

Similar complaints were voiced by Michael Hudson, Head of the British crypto investment firm Bitstocks. "It's almost impossible to open an account in the UK. We work from Poland and Gibraltar, where the situation is the most stable in this respect. Earlier we had an account in Bulgaria, but it did not last for a long time. "

British financial regulators turned their attention to crypto currencies in 2014. The Bank of England newsletter for the third quarter of 2014 said that the bank recognized these currencies as a means of payment, but among a very limited number of individuals and organizations. In addition, the Bank of England said that the crypto-currencies did not pose a threat to the British financial market. Subsequently, the authorities have repeatedly stated that they are quite loyal to using crypto currency, but they are in favor of greater transparency in operations with them. However, local traditional banks are still afraid to deal with crypto-currencies, just because of the low transparency and unpredictability of the consequences.

In the meantime, the bitcoin price is trying to overcome the bar of $ 10 thousand, according to respondents interviewed on CNBC's website.

Of the 23,118 people who participated in the survey, almost half (49%) are confident that bitcoin will cost more than $ 10,000 per coin. The market participants made similar forecasts. One of the most successful traders with crypto-currencies - Mike Novogratz, who predicted the rapid growth of the crypto-currency a few years ago - believes that the crypto-currencies will be a colossal bubble, but the prices for them will soar very high, and people should earn on this.

Since the beginning of the year, the cost of bitcoin has added more than 400%, according to stock exchanges data. Only for 2017, the first crypto-currency overcame values such as $ 2 thousand, $ 3 thousand, $ 4 thousand, $ 5 thousand. Meanwhile, the attitude to crypto-currencies in the world remains ambiguous. China and South Korea recently began blocking services, and Beijing recently banned the ICO.

source: ft.com, cnbc.com