Portuguese Banks Stop the use of Cryptos (Bitcoin)

[Myleschetty]

Weird, i thought this would be nice income revenue for portugal as others are tighting their grip on cryptos. But i guess you have to follow the big guys when the lobbying and peer pressure is just too high.

The level of naiveness of the Feds about cryptocurrency is so surprising.
After I saw this news, I did some search about the possible reason why a country that once support crypto trading and exchanging could go against and I found out that they stopped the use of crypto because of the fear of potential money laundering.

[Lucius]

The level of naiveness of the Feds about cryptocurrency is so surprising.
After I saw this news, I did some search about the possible reason why a country that once support crypto trading and exchanging could go against and I found out that they stopped the use of crypto because of the fear of potential money laundering.

You misunderstood, the policy has not changed at all - the banks have changed their attitude towards cryptocurrencies because it is obviously a better option for them than implementing additional mechanisms to fight money laundering. Banks, like you and I, have the right to choose whether to do business with someone or not - you can't force someone to do something just because you think it's right.

In addition, Bitcoin should strive for decentralization when it comes to trading, not relying on banks that are part of the problem.

[Findingnemo]

Banks cannot stop the usage of bitcoin, they stopped their services to exchange so users can't be able to convert their fiat to cryptocurrency and vice versa, it happened in many countries then if exchanges fight for it then such attrocities from banks can also be reverted in certain cases. Banks trying to supress the cryptocurrency but at some point it will turn against them.

[Coyster]

Banks cannot stop the usage of bitcoin, they stopped their services to exchange so users can't be able to convert their fiat to cryptocurrency and vice versa, it happened in many countries

Yeah, a similar thing happened in my country too, there is currently a ban by the CBN that banks should not process or facilitate transactions that are related to cryptocurrency, direct from crypto exchanges. Having said that, since that very ban here, nothing much has changed, it hasn't reduced or affected the number of people that use crypto. We can't compel the banks to act in our favor cause we are crypto enthusiasts, good thing is we already know they can come up with changes like this spontaneously, but there will be alternatives, and nothing much will change in Portugal as a result of this.

[Nrcewker]

On the 5th of August, 2022, bitcoin news. Portuguese Banks Stop using crypto (bitcoin) for exchange in the their local banks. That is the users of bitcoin or the bitcoiners can buy and sell bitcoin and othe crypto currencies in the country. But even though the bitcoiners can not use and exchange bitcoin in the country, they can go to a near by country to do the exchange but it will still affect them in their own country unless they permanently stay in the country. https://news.bitcoin.com/portuguese-banks-close-accounts-of-crypto-exchanges-media-reveals

Banks are bound by the government.
As the government cannot control the Bitcoins and cannot impose tax on it, so yes they given guidelines to the bank to stop transactions based on cryptos.
Nevertheless due to the decentralised nature of Bitcoins, we can easily to Bitcoin transactions, without the government or the banks.
People of Portugal can easily do P2P deals in order to buy or sell Bitcoins and in this way they will also be saved from exchange and bank fees.

[yazher]

So the freelance guys who are depending on their salary through cryptos are safe and the title of this thread is just simply misleading. Well, that's really not a surprise because as we know, frauds and scams are common in the crypto industry that's why we have always some people who are always posting some awareness on how to prevent yourself from getting scammed. this community really gives people legit information when it comes to cryptocurrencies and anything like it, after this is where you can get legit information on things that are related to crypto because when someone gets confused with the title of his thread, there's always someone who corrected him and will tell the others about the real news.

[Findingnemo]

Banks cannot stop the usage of bitcoin, they stopped their services to exchange so users can't be able to convert their fiat to cryptocurrency and vice versa, it happened in many countries

Yeah, a similar thing happened in my country too, there is currently a ban by the CBN that banks should not process or facilitate transactions that are related to cryptocurrency, direct from crypto exchanges. Having said that, since that very ban here, nothing much has changed, it hasn't reduced or affected the number of people that use crypto. We can't compel the banks to act in our favor cause we are crypto enthusiasts, good thing is we already know they can come up with changes like this spontaneously, but there will be alternatives, and nothing much will change in Portugal as a result of this.

You're right though still there are alternatives for the people who wants to trade their cryptocurrency for fiat but this ban is mostly for stopping the new people from entering into the market so as a crypto community and also the exchanges should fight for it if the banks starts to ban such restrictions when there is no such ban from the government side.

[darkangel11]

I feel like the move to restrict crypto transactions is against the policies of the country. According to the article from 2 months ago, they were planning to tax cryptocurrencies. You can't tax something that you're trying to ban, so IMO there are no plans to ban it and the bank is overreacting to the threat of inflation. They're afraid people will drop fiat and go to safer assets.

Portuguese Minister of Finance Fernando Medina said cryptocurrencies will be subject to taxation in the near future

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/05/16/portugal-makes-u-turn-on-cryptocurrency-tax/

[Rana590]

Banks cannot stop the usage of bitcoin, they stopped their services to exchange so users can't be able to convert their fiat to cryptocurrency and vice versa, it happened in many countries then if exchanges fight for it then such attrocities from banks can also be reverted in certain cases. Banks trying to supress the cryptocurrency but at some point it will turn against them.

It is true that banks have no capability to stop using crypto. In this decentralized market, anyone can use and take the advantage of crypto. Banks can restrict it on the purpose of legal using of it. However, obviously it is not good news for crypto lovers.

[TheNineClub]

On the 5th of August, 2022, bitcoin news. Portuguese Banks Stop using crypto (bitcoin) for exchange in the their local banks. That is the users of bitcoin or the bitcoiners can buy and sell bitcoin and othe crypto currencies in the country. But even though the bitcoiners can not use and exchange bitcoin in the country, they can go to a near by country to do the exchange but it will still affect them in their own country unless they permanently stay in the country. https://news.bitcoin.com/portuguese-banks-close-accounts-of-crypto-exchanges-media-reveals

Not sure why they switched back to not using crypto, but it can't be due to the price drop. I gusess it could be due to some government regulations demending more control and transparency. I just don't know why they then "adopted" crypto in the first place. Strange decision.

[Leviathan.007]

On the 5th of August, 2022, bitcoin news. Portuguese Banks Stop using crypto (bitcoin) for exchange in the their local banks. That is the users of bitcoin or the bitcoiners can buy and sell bitcoin and othe crypto currencies in the country. But even though the bitcoiners can not use and exchange bitcoin in the country, they can go to a near by country to do the exchange but it will still affect them in their own country unless they permanently stay in the country. https://news.bitcoin.com/portuguese-banks-close-accounts-of-crypto-exchanges-media-reveals

I don't have much information about this country and all I know about Portugal is what everyone can see on the internet on different websites, but regarding stopping the usage of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in Portugal I can say that's not good for them because if they close the cryptocurrency-related bank accounts there will still d4mand between people to buy and sell cryptocurrencies while they cannot use the legal exchanges and they will try to find underground markets while they can be scammed and this cannot be good for both the people and the government of Portugal.

[KennyR]

On the 5th of August, 2022, bitcoin news. Portuguese Banks Stop using crypto (bitcoin) for exchange in the their local banks. That is the users of bitcoin or the bitcoiners can buy and sell bitcoin and othe crypto currencies in the country. But even though the bitcoiners can not use and exchange bitcoin in the country, they can go to a near by country to do the exchange but it will still affect them in their own country unless they permanently stay in the country. https://news.bitcoin.com/portuguese-banks-close-accounts-of-crypto-exchanges-media-reveals

Not sure why they switched back to not using crypto, but it can't be due to the price drop. I gusess it could be due to some government regulations demending more control and transparency. I just don't know why they then "adopted" crypto in the first place. Strange decision.

There is nothing strange. Banks always have a fear that cryptocurrency usage could take the place of them. Even some statistics showed a big loss of revenue for the banking sector from transaction fee. Possibly this is the prime reason according to me, but they'll indicate money laundering and other transaction support as the reason for closure of bank accounts of few exchanges operating within the country.

[coolcoinz]

These governments can't decide what they want to do with cryptocurrencies and this is making them look like they don't have a strong opinion, can't and shouldn't lead countries if they change their minds every year. The EU wanted to be crypto-friendly but then someone scared politicians by telling them mining could take too much electricity and it's not green enough so now they're putting pressure on banks to decrease the number of active crypto users.
Portugal is not the first and not the last here. 2 years ago Russia was supposed to allow for cryptocurrency exchange, then they were planning to ban it because they wanted to start their centralized crypto, then they wanted countries to avoid sanctions by paying them in cryptocurrencies and then they banned it. India also can't decide if they want to allow it or ban it. They're all one big joke to me.

[cheezcarls]

On the 5th of August, 2022, bitcoin news. Portuguese Banks Stop using crypto (bitcoin) for exchange in the their local banks. That is the users of bitcoin or the bitcoiners can buy and sell bitcoin and othe crypto currencies in the country. But even though the bitcoiners can not use and exchange bitcoin in the country, they can go to a near by country to do the exchange but it will still affect them in their own country unless they permanently stay in the country. https://news.bitcoin.com/portuguese-banks-close-accounts-of-crypto-exchanges-media-reveals

Well I guess that the Portugese cryptonians must look for other options like the P2P. I don't know about mobile payment providers that isn't connected to the bank though, but that could be the other option or just simply order a crypto debit card or so.

My own assumption is that their banks want control of our funds. The problem is that they can't control because blockchain cannot be controlled unless it was built for centralization.

[ChiBitCTy]

...But even though the bitcoiners can not use and exchange bitcoin in the country, they can go to a near by country to do the exchange but it will still affect them in their own country unless they permanently stay in the country.

Portugal's Central Bank hasn't revoked the operating license issued to these crypto exchange firms so that means regular crypto users can still trade bitcoin in these platforms. It seems other local banks are open in accepting deposits from these exchanges so they can still move their funds there.

Thank you for clarifying this.

I’m a bit surprised to hear this going out of Portugal. From everything that I’ve ever heard of Portugal is that it’s a very progressive country, so just surprised to seen them putting limitations like this on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Hopefully this is more of a short term deal.

[Zlantann]

When government fail in carrying out their function they tend to look for avenues to get excuses. And the crypto space have been one of their main excuse targets. The government would always give many reasons why their decision is for the best interest of the masses. All the problems they always claim that the ban of crypto currency would end always increase after the ban because fiat even creates more problems than crypto. But it would only take time before the truth would be unveiled. The populace would later know that their main enemy is the government and not Bitcoin.

[Silberman]

Weird, i thought this would be nice income revenue for portugal as others are tighting their grip on cryptos. But i guess you have to follow the big guys when the lobbying and peer pressure is just too high.

The level of naiveness of the Feds about cryptocurrency is so surprising.
After I saw this news, I did some search about the possible reason why a country that once support crypto trading and exchanging could go against and I found out that they stopped the use of crypto because of the fear of potential money laundering.

Any point of centralization will always be used to harass those which use it, centralized exchanges while practical are a weakness of this market, banks can decide if they want to deal with them or not and even if we do not like it this is their right, also if they did this is because they think they can afford it, after all banks are managed by very pragmatic people, if the revenue they would stand to lose was huge most likely they would not have done something like this, but since they believe otherwise they took this decision.

[stompix]

But I see incoherence here. First, these exchanges are legally operating and approved by no less than the central bank and the regulating authorities, which means that they are all AML-compliant.

No, it doens't mean that.
You can be regulated you can claim to be AML compliant but you can do a lot of shit like everyone is doing, not just cryptos, all companies that are involved in financial transactions will at one point break at least once, when the pile of the money goes too high there is always the temptation of getting more for yourself.

The level of naiveness of the Feds about cryptocurrency is so surprising.
After I saw this news, I did some search about the possible reason why a country that once support crypto trading and exchanging could go against and I found out that they stopped the use of crypto because of the fear of potential money laundering.

What's naive is to make a whole mess of the government, the fiscal authority, the parliament that enacts laws and throws in a private bank that can and is allowed to refuse any client they don't want. There is no such thing as this country did this, there are different mechanisms set in place at different levels and none at this point has issued any ban or restriction on bitcoin.

But still, I wonder what happened that triggered different banks to act like this in a short time right now, they haven't done anything like this in the past and it's not like suddenly they are over runner with accounts and money during this bear season, so probably something really shady happened with one or more local exchanges, if we see arrest after this now for money laundering and tax evasion on a different level, meaning millions,  that's probably the cause, at least this is what I'm things about.

[Darker45]

But I see incoherence here. First, these exchanges are legally operating and approved by no less than the central bank and the regulating authorities, which means that they are all AML-compliant.

No, it doens't mean that.
You can be regulated you can claim to be AML compliant but you can do a lot of shit like everyone is doing, not just cryptos, all companies that are involved in financial transactions will at one point break at least once, when the pile of the money goes too high there is always the temptation of getting more for yourself.

There are legal AML requirements and procedures and these exchanges complied with them. Such is one of the reasons why they successfully obtained license from no less than the central bank. Of course, it doesn't mean that since they are AML-compliant there's zero laundering happening on their platforms. The same is true with the banks. They're also AML-compliant and they, too, are central bank-licensed, but it doesn't mean that there are no laundering activities happening in their system. That's why there's constant coordination with authorities in terms of suspicious transactions.