According to the Broker Complaint Registry, some details of the shortly upcoming classification by MasterCard had already become public in May of this year. The registry notes that binary options, CFDs, forex, cryptocurrency options, and ICOs will fall under a new category of “High-Risk Securities Merchants” starting on Oct. 12, 2018, and will be subject to additional monitoring.
Are cryptocurrency options the same as cryptocurrencies? I am not convinced, maybe somebody with better knowledge in financial terms (and maybe native English too) can tell.
They are not, but it sounds like Visa and MasterCard are trying to be clever with how they classify the concern they have. If one thinks of cryptocurrency as a commodity, then the ability to sell that commodity for fiat currency at somepoint in the future is similar to an option. The main and important difference is that one who owns cryptocurrency is not buying a contract to buy or sell that cryptocurrency in the future at a pre-determined price.
I need to do more reading on why Visa and MasterCard are calling them "Cryptocurrency Options"...they could still restrict the use of cryptocurrencies for the reason that they don't want to deal with cryptocurrencies.
