If you are a follower of ours in the U.K. who has a Chase bank account, you may have been stunned by this prompt when accessing your account yesterday:
So, what is the justification for such major action? Fraud, according to Chase. The U.K. has had a major problem in recent months regarding fraud related to crypto, with a 40% increase in the problem this year for the region costing upwards of 300 million pounds (roughly $364 million when exchanged.) Critics such as CoinBase CEO Brian Armstrong, have slammed this move, which will likely impact his company’s plans to expand into the U.K. announced earlier this year. Some are skeptical that fraud concerns are the sole reason for this sweeping move however, with heavy speculation in the industry that Chase will be coming out with their own cryptocurrency in the next year, and if true, this could be a move to crush competitors in the market.
We’ve seen some unprecedented moves by major banks getting in the way of people freely exchanging their own money as desired in recent years. You may remember in 2018, Bank of America stopping any lending of gun manufactures who sell carbine rifles such as the popular AR-15 model. That same year, online payment giant PayPal banned the likes of conspiracy focused talk show host Alex Jones. One year after that in 2019, conservative journalist and activist who later ran for U.S. Congress in Florida, Laura Loomer, was also booted from the platform. More recently, the government got in the way of crypto related exchanges when authorities under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada actually seized Bitcoin donated to Canadian truckers protesting COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
With these recent examples cited, does it make sense for a major bank like Chase to ban an entire system of digital currency under the guise of keeping its customers safe from fraud? Banks and even governments getting in the way of the free exchange of goods, services, and now digital currency is becoming more commonplace and can really hurt the entire idea of decentralized monetary exchange. We plan on doing a more in-depth podcast on this with Nyedis CIO Adam Callen giving his thoughts on the threat to blockchain at large. Let us know what you think. If you’re in the U.K. and have Chase, are you planning on closing your account? For our U.S. followers and those elsewhere, would you close your account if this expands into your country? We’re eager to hear your thoughts.