Bitcoin Forum

This article claims that over 36 bitcoin exchanges have closed shop around the world, since October 2015, due to discontinuation of banking services to them.

Is it that commercial banks have conspired to make it difficult for bitcoin startups or they are just trying to abide by the present laws and regulations?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogeraitken/2017/02/12/bitcoin-or-bust-taking-british-banking-out-of-exchanges/#1e942876588e

its more about these "exchanges" not declaring they are a business and not having a business bank account. because then they are required to show regulatory approval if they declare the business as a money business.. so most of the 'startups' try running large multidollar businesses using 'personal accounts'

this is not about banks. but fiat regulations. which starts at the government end.

if you want to touch fiat then expect to follow fiat rules.

now you know why bitcoin was invented. if you only hand bitcoin and not touch fiat your not in the jurisdiction of fiat rules.
double edge sword.

Banking regulations were not similar to our bitcoin to support huge volume transactions with ease. When huge volume transaction is made in terms of fiat for the bitcoin trading need they are all supposed to follow certain stepped regulations. Abiding this leads to enquiry to the receiver and the sender. In such way lot gets affected.

Many reasons from banks regulations that could affected exchanges
“I regret to inform you that starting from 1st February, British Pound deposits and withdrawals are no longer supported by Cryptopay due to updated bank policies.”
What kind of policies? We need more information about it.
“Bridging the gap between the conventional banking system and bitcoin is a challenging and expensive task. We have had many issues dealing with the conventional banking system; missing transfers, crippling technical issues, accounts frozen without warning, and even accounts closed without warning.”
In those cases may seems that, conventional bank deliberately restrict exchanges transactions, even though government had stated it as legal digital currency/commodity.
"Of course bitcoin is perfectly legal in the UK although unregulated, but the hub of the matter centres on the banks’ attitude to the cryptocurrency in this country and that they “won't play nice”.
We can't expect more from them and government have to give legitimacy for bitcoin and exchanges, unless they consider the high price and the rising price as a threat for fiat money and banking system which bitcoin has get popularity among citizens.

having spoke to many banks and businesses and also from my own experiences helping businesses in the past. the problem is not "bitcoin" its startups not understanding the FIAT rules.
also a few cases are where chargeback scammers try to get their wire transfers reversed by pretending they are victims of scams.

this is not a 'banker attack on bitcoin' but a regulation and bank rules enforcement on fiat

in short if you want to run a business that accepts fiat. (for any purpose) know the terms and conditions of the account you are using (dont use personal account for business transactions)

hand over a business plan to the bank explaining how you will mitigate the 'chargeback scammer' risk.
hand over a business plan to the bank explaining how your 'funding' is not linked to crime
hand over a business plan to the bank explaining how you will audit your funding and identify possible threats

Startups have a high rate of failure (9 out of 10 fail according to some). This has nothing to do with Bitcoin specifically. Running a successful business isn't easy and many who try will fail.

http://fortune.com/2014/09/25/why-startups-fail-according-to-their-founders/

Sure banks have a huge power, no doubt about that.

And I do think they're keeping an eye on BTC and the blockchain technology.
But to think they could sabotage btc start up? Nah...
Not because of ethics, just because... They don't give a damn. When you're a god you're not going to kill every mouse who wants to get bigger.

I think that ultimately we are going to see alot of business failures in the bitcoin environment, especially in the early days when banks and society are still adjusting to the new reality.

that was satoshi main motivation, to punish bailout for banks
he succeed :)
banks will fade in next 100 years

You really need the help and corporation of the bank if you are planning to start a bitcoin exchange and if you are not able to start a current account with a bank then your business model is doomed unless you find another alternative.It is not about conspiring and stuff rather ignorance about what bitcoin is all about.

I don't think banks care at all to if bitcoin startups will survive, they will just be involved in providing loans to them and such so they're going to hope to be repaid with interest. Though I do believe that current government regulations cause bitcoin startups to have problems as it costs tons of money to adhere to regulations and follow all of them fully.

Plus not a lot of customers who use bitcoin for anonymity are going to want to follow and adhere to KYC laws which are usually key to a companies survival.


This too, it's not like all of these startups are going to work out and MOST don't anyway so you have to take it with a grain of salt with many bitcoin startups failing rather quickly.

Whatever banks feel about Bitcoin, they feel an awful lot more about the regulations they have to abide by. For a piddling amount of business they get an awful lot more head aches by being involved with BTC because they can't be sure where the money's coming from. Even if they loved it, they'd probably still say no for the sake of a quiet life.

I think the opportunity is definitely there. BANK user is now diminishing as they move and start using bitcoin.
I am assuming that the BANK will suffer substantial losses. they can move for their clients.

Yeah. the only choice for the banks so that they will not been overpower by bitcoin is to adapt bitcoin itself in their banking system, in that way they will have additional profit and no further losses. The only thing they must consider is the government to accept bitcoin.It is better than making conspiracy against bitcoin

The problem was coming from the internal element. I think the chinese exchange's case already give a clear answer for its problem. At the bank was fear with bitcoin. They try to push the startups. and it makes the pessimism trend to continue his startups.

The thing is, bank will never admit to this. They will sit behind closed doors and find excuses for their actions to hide the real reasons that they are doing this. Just become a victim of a phishing scam and get your online banking credentials stolen and your accounts wiped, and you will see how these bankers operate. < You will be a victim for a second time >

Banks are quick to sign you up for loans and credit, but you seldom read the detail hidden in their contracts and when the shit hits the fan, you have signed away your rights. ^grrrrrrr^

ireally think so dude.Banks and bitcoins are never been the same and can never cross path in our money world and banks cant stop bitcoins
]

We dont knows for sure, but I am sure the banks can't kill bitcoin
bitcoin is a big community and many of the people using of bitcoin and will be the great future of payments online.

Given the fact that bitcoin is legal in UK the banks has now refused to offer services to exchanges hampering bitcoin uses in UK limited to few number of citizens. It is now reported that bitcoin can no longer be useful to the masses in UK when they can no longer convert their bitcoins to fiat. The reason probably that led to this is the banks are losing profit due to increasing number of people placing their savings on bitcoin rather than on banks. The banks probably feels the pressure and threat brought by bitcoins thus to stop the competition it is the best choice for them to discontinue banking services to bitcoin exchanges.

The same thing we will continue to face until government can take position on the positive side. For me, its not the fault of the banks because they are there to make money and they will try every means to make that happen, imagine the revenue that will accrue to them from the volume of transactions of exchange sites but they will go against government regulations in other to avoid sanctions even over here the few exchange sites will ask you not to put anything related to 'bitcoin' when making deposits or transfer to their bank accounts...

That's just a tad confirmation bias heavy. Bitcoin is nowhere in the UK because of the banks and it's always been nowhere. The most successful UK exchange maintained its bank account by lying to the bank about what they were dealing in.

I doubt they regard it as a threat, just a monumental pain up the arse to deal with and zero upside for them.

Sadly yes. Until we get wider adoption some btc would still have to be converted to fiat and those exchanges would still have to deal with banks and by extension the government.

Banks don't like competition and bitcoin is their bigest competition at the moment. Conspiracy is maybe too strong word but banks definetely weren't happy with possibility for startups to be financed with bitcoins so they have probably done everything not to enable this kir if financing.

All you need to do to void this is trade in a country with little to no ridiculous greedy laws and you fine.
People dont magically k ow every transaction you make and to who.

I don't think it has anything to do with any conspiracy. All the commercial banks in the UK don't belong to one person or to one family, and they don't belong to people who can agree on something, knowing they will be losing profits because of that agreement. As it was nicely put in the end of the article: " It’s just that the answer will be to work around them rather than with them." And I'm sure, since Bitcoin is perfectly legal in the UK, that there are banks there which won't lose the opportunity to replace those with bad attitude to BTC in the business.

Banks have done conspiracy against bitcoin in a considerable period of time, and they make it look bad and make bitcoin news only used by illicit trafficking mafia.

Banks will not be able to hold bitcoin, because humans are already living in an era of increasingly sophisticated technology. They finally just can maneuver and adopt bitcoin system with a very fundamental difference algorithm. That means accepting bitcoin in their systems to prevent bitcoin enlarged independently.

I totally agree with all what you have said about what OP's topic is all about. Since some of the online shops are using bitcoin, and they are using bitcoin in the bank? Maybe that is why the bank are rejecting them because banks are not accepting bitcoin right now, but here in our country, the biggest bank here is accepting bitcoin as a payment on every transaction that their clients will going to have with them, and it is really cool, though it is not supported in all the country all over the world.

So it would be better for the online shops if they don't want to happens something like this to them, they have to convert their bitcoins to fiat and then, this fiat is the one that they will going to use on the transactions that they will going to have with the banks, so that, they don't need to close their shop because the banks are shutting them down.

With banks, there are strict laws and regulations to follow from A to Z. Most, if not all of those exchanges have something shaddy in their business... Try to run a business with your own personnal bank account and see what it's going to happen in the following days/weeks. Try to run a bank without a banking licence, you won't last long. Banks and theirs activities are highly monitores now, the cow boys period ended long ago. They don't want to be related with something that could be considered as a fraud

Well I it is true the banks conspired to kill growing bitcoin with the law and regulation of bitcoin,
because the banks will be disappear if bitcoin growing up,
and many people who use bitcoin in their business, life and other,
as we know bitcoin is more easy to be used for sending money especially in remittance.

based on the facts, we can affirm Bitcoin businesses always depends on the bank. because the real money is always the basis for determining the value of Bitcoin. no one can use Bitcoin as its value can not be converted into real money. So when banks stopped providing services, these businesses can not operate. however, definitely has a certain reason, because most banks provide services to businesses. I think, major businesses have done something wrong. we should not blame the banks

I do not think so, any bank that wishes to a development, especially when partnered with the Bitcoin now. because there are INFECT Bitcoin potential, and they find it. so most banks providing services to businesses Bitcoin. The main businesses were doing something wrong, be it legal issues. I believe that is true. conspiracy which you say is completely fabricated

I don't believe that the exchanges closed down just cause the banks pulled the support out of them, think more advance stuff, they obviously were doing something illegal or shady and they came in the eyes of the authorities which In turn forced them to pull a stop on their business. Banks have learnt to exist along with Bitcoins, so I don't see any reason why the Bitcoins exchanges would shut down due to the banks support not there, you should always be careful about this exchanges as this could be lot of problematic if they suddenly close. If there are any investors of the exchanges we will come to know what really happened there.

That's correct but I wouldn't be surprised if the banks indeed conspired to thwart the Bitcoin startups in pursuit of their own selfish agenda. It can sure happen because of the fear of competition.

No, Banks are not stopping bitcoin startup because banks are not playing any role in bitcoin right now. and even china had banned banks to make transaction and deal with bitcoin.

I'm not sure. If there was they wouldn't tell us and keep it a secret. I would not be surprised of they were conspiring against us though. So they could already be. Bitcoin is a threat to them and bitcoin is better then the banks and they know this and fear this. Maybe they the ones trying to give bitcoin bad publicity.

Unlikely scenario. There is no real proof to back that conspiracy theory that banks are killing bitcoin business.
In every case I know it was exchange which failed to present documents or obtain license required to work as legit currency exchanges business.
Banks are regulated by the of government, there are certain requirements, restrictions and guidelines they can't just deal with anyone.
We all know how shaky exchanges can be, so I would rather have serious exchange with whom I may conduct fully regulated business than the one with whom even banks can't deal.

The usage of bitcoins are  really a threat to the country's economy . Banks are regulated by the government and what all decisions bank takes is the government's decision.If people started to use bitcoins , government wont get income tax.In my opinion its not the banks but the governments are trying to get rid of bitcoin usage.

You forgot one important detail.

Not all banks are against BTC, only british ones. We use to think of the UK as a BTC-friendly country, compared to Russia or China which aren't, but it's the opposite which may prove true. I've had no problem dealing BTC in Switzerland, Germany, France or Italy.

The brits have always hated things they couldn't control, and BTC is one of them. They will soon (I hope) leave the European Union, and they should leave BTC as well. The crypto world would be better without them.

That's typically going to happen in such a large and new market. I'm personally surprised there haven't been more closing. Just my two cents though. I've been wrong before.

Banks won't initiate regulatory acts to kill bitcoin start-ups. Recently largest private bank of Indonesia invested into fintech start-ups for a better supporting of digital move. As a part the startups support in the technology development for the bank and makes it reach all category of people and the banks takes care of the financial services.

I don't think there is a conspiration theory,sometimes we tend to think that that person or instituion have a plan against BTC but often that's not the case,there are banks which fully support these startups and offer nice loans and provide funding so it all comes down to every single bank,not the system as a whole,yeah there are banks which won't fund the startups but fortunately they are the smaller percentage of all of them

Banks love money more than anything but you still need to follow some rules, but the rules don't come from the banks but from the governments, governments own the fiat and if you are going to do deals in fiat then you need to follow their rules is that simple.

The opposite I could say. That is, banks literally put the rules and of course banks have the money. Governments all over the world are groups of people with very good salaries and their main goals are to follow and implement faithfully what the bankers have already decide. On the other side banks always want to fund companies that in the future will succeed and they will have certain profit and possibly as someone above has post they can control through its loans.

yes agree, I think still do not feel any need for that. because still bitcoin has no relation with banks and secondly the users of bitcoin are still very low therefore it is not needed. But I think in future when the users of bitcoin will increase then they can think about that.

Banks cannot kill what they can't control. Also, they are too busy with making more money for themselves and I don't think bitcoin is getting in the way of what they are trying to accomplish. If there's anybody who's at fault for the closure of some exchanges, banks are definitely not the ones to blame.

Personally I think the biggest reason exchanges fail are the exchanges themselves, someone with money to spare decides they want to make an exchange without taking into consideration the enormous task it is, then they get hacked or don’t have enough volume and eventually those exchanges disappear.