The hypocrisy of the UK on Cryptocurrency

[EarnOnVictor]

I've been following the development in the UK in line with cryptocurrency for a while now, and I must say that I'm not so happy about most of the things I read. The hypocrisy of that nation is much, they could have just announced to the whole world that they've banned crypto instead of making life difficult for crypto enthusiasts by introducing unfriendly rules and preventing businesses around it by blocking exchanges and other business initiatives with sanctions.

Of course, it's not all their financial institutions, but once the strongest are doing so, how long would it take for more issues to arise?

Why UK banks are blocking transfers to and from crypto exchanges
As of 2023, many UK high street banks are blocking payments to and from major cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase due to increased security concerns post the collapse of the FTX exchange.

Can you imagine? Banks claim to be blocking people and businesses because of the FTX collapse. How many banks have they stopped because of the ugly past of many UK banks that went insolvent?

The problem of one establishment out of many should never be a yardstick in judging others. For me, these banks are anti-crypto and their actions are high level of hypocrisy.

[mindrust]

People should understand that the governments are not our friends. Why are you getting mad? Most of the time govs make our lives more difficult. This is just another example of that. The so called crypto-friendly govs like El Salvador and St. Kitts are crypto friendly only because they are using this to attract crypto investors and there is nothing wrong with that... However, these investors don't really prefer countries like El Salvador to make investments, they prefer countries such as France, USA, Germany, UK etc... Let's be honest El Salvador is not a country most of us would dream of living in. In this big picture, as far as I understood it, the UK simply don't give a damn about crypto investors. :/ I guess they don't need our money.

[_act_]

Bitcoin and other coins, and tokens were created without the help of the banks. People can buy coins and tokens without the need of the banks. You have your coins in bank, you do not have the keys yourself.

What I am looking forward to is for SEC in United States to approve bitcoin spot ETF which will make more people to trade bitcoin in the stock market.

What I do not like about the UK banks is that they blocked crypto exchanges to have access to sterling. But life with people exchanging crypto with other people, is that not better than relying on organizations.

I have lived my crypto life without the banks and the government.

[Zaguru12]

The problem of one establishment out of many should never be a yardstick in judging others. For me, these banks are anti-crypto and their actions are high level of hypocrisy.

I wouldn’t say I am surprised because we all know that both banks and government no matter how they twist it would not fam bitcoin or cryptocurrency at large because they feel it is a strong threat to there existence even if we are of the opinion it is just an alternative to them. The collapse of these entities would be used to spread misinformation or rather stereotypes about bitcoin just to make people think twice about them.

Just like what _act_ said there are many that even use bitcoin or cryptocurrency outside banks. Personally I even feel it is more convenient because having it associated with the banks only compromises one’s privacy and as such leads the government back to you when they want

[_act_]

Just like what _act_ said there are many that even use bitcoin or cryptocurrency outside banks. Personally I even feel it is more convenient because having it associated with the banks only compromises one’s privacy and as such leads the government back to you when they want

A friend of mine some months ago called me, asked me questions about how to buy bitcoin. He wanted to use an exchange before, but later decided to use a bank in the UK. We did everything together though communication. What I noticed was that the money deducted as fee was very high, just like if you want to withdraw bitcoin from exchanges. The banks are even using the means to earn.

[Die_empty]

The problem of one establishment out of many should never be a yardstick in judging others. For me, these banks are anti-crypto and their actions are high level of hypocrisy.

Most of these UK banks has political affiliation or connection. They will always do the bidding of the political class. The political class wants to control everything about the citizens including how they keep or save their own money. Banks like Nationwide are placing some restrictions like not allowing customers to buy cryptocurrency with debit or credit cards. They have also restricted the amount that can be transacted using cryptos. Their common excuse will be that they are protecting citizens from scams or loss of funds caused by the fall of exchanges.

If the government really wants to protect its citizens from fraudulent exchanges, it should promote awareness programs that encourage citizens to use decentralized platforms to engage in bitcoin transactions. FTX will always be the defense of the government in its selfish quest to silence crypto.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I've been following the development in the UK in line with cryptocurrency for a while now, and I must say that I'm not so happy about most of the things I read. The hypocrisy of that nation is much, they could have just announced to the whole world that they've banned crypto instead of making life difficult for crypto enthusiasts by introducing unfriendly rules and preventing businesses around it by blocking exchanges and other business initiatives with sanctions.

They may be of threat to other cryptocurrencies because of their centralization but there's nothing they can change or influence about bitcoin, despite they were the ones making all these regulations, we still have some part of them who have already invested in bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies in their closet but they won't comes out to declare such, that's why you could discover contrary opinions on this subject matter whenever it was been raised.

Of course, it's not all their financial institutions, but once the strongest are doing so, how long would it take for more issues to arise?

The only regulations they could effect is to avoid the banks from performing anything that has to do with cryptocurrency transactions in which i think most of the countries have achieved while some don't make such ban, but they can influence the bitcoin adoption through this because it's decentralized.

[Who is John Galt?]

Can you imagine? Banks claim to be blocking people and businesses because of the FTX collapse. How many banks have they stopped because of the ugly past of many UK banks that went insolvent?

Isn't this one of the examples of why Satoshi Nakamoto began to develop a decentralized financial system? Yes, banks decide for you how you can manage your own money, we already know this, which is why we are here.

And, frankly, the mentioned Binance and Coinbase, as for me, do not look any better than banks, these are the same centralized organizations that decide for you how you can manage your money.

The real bitcoin is only on the bitcoin blockchain. All these centralized intermediaries, who in reality control all your money by 100%, will behave as they want, because they can.

If you want to retain the right to manage your money, try to deal with such centralized intermediaries as little as possible.

[kryptqnick]

I'm sorry that banks are blocking payments that are related to major exchanges, but I guess if they are private businesses, they are allowed to do that, and it's natural for banks to see crypto exchanges and cryptos in general as their rivals.
But the official crypto regulations in the UK are nice, I think, especially with the tax-free annual allowance covering crypto profits. It's not like they have a consistently crypto-friendly policy in the UK, but it's not too restrictive either.

[bussybuddy]

I've been following the development in the UK in line with cryptocurrency for a while now, and I must say that I'm not so happy about most of the things I read. The hypocrisy of that nation is much, they could have just announced to the whole world that they've banned crypto instead of making life difficult for crypto enthusiasts by introducing unfriendly rules and preventing businesses around it by blocking exchanges and other business initiatives with sanctions.
...

My view is quite agreeable on this issue, the common interests and individual interests of each subject in each situation are different, maybe at that time they have objections and consider it quite negative, but Over time it is clear that we are seeing them open up to this field more and more. I don't mind and judge their behavior, as long as they are bringing it to the attention of many people even though sometimes associated with negative news for crypto, really an ordinary citizen I don't have much to worry about as their government makes people's lives better, we will still believe and support them.

[Cryptomultiplier]

I wouldn't see UK as being hypocrite as regards the regulation of cryptocurrency which is allowed and has been approved. They are trying to make the profits that banks would have lost due to DEX emergence. Perhaps, if they notice the correspondence of citizens using more of cryptocurrencies, the taxes would be increased, stricter rules would be set.

It should be considered more or less a test to see usage and acceptance from the citizens. It is to also keep an eye on possible criminal minds and transactions too.
What US is doing, is more hypocritical because their motive is skewed even as we know that there are more crypto users there.

[pooya87]

they could have just announced to the whole world that they've banned crypto instead of making life difficult for crypto enthusiasts by introducing unfriendly rules and preventing businesses around it by blocking exchanges and other business initiatives with sanctions.

They want control and adoption preventive measures without bringing down the ban hammer. The more people flee their grip by dumping centralized fiat and buy bitcoin, the more they are going to push back and add more restrictions. Specially with the worsening economy, the fear will continue to grow about more people finding the "exit" called bitcoin...

[tbct_mt2]

I've been following the development in the UK in line with cryptocurrency for a while now, and I must say that I'm not so happy about most of the things I read.

You mean their regulations against Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, not their development.

The hypocrisy of that nation is much, they could have just announced to the whole world that they've banned crypto instead of making life difficult for crypto enthusiasts by introducing unfriendly rules and preventing businesses around it by blocking exchanges and other business initiatives with sanctions.

If governments want to launch their CBDCs and want their citizens to use CBDCs, they must force their citizens to stop using Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as least as possible. If you are governments, you will do the same.

They only reduce usage from their citizens because there are non KYC exchanges serve their citizens.

[topbitcoin]

Indeed, that's the reality, they governments and banking institutions don't really like crypto basically and that's not really a surprising thing because it has happened so often, but yes it's not feasible if it's because of the FTX case that everyone is affected, but you don't need to worry if you can't exchange your bitcoins and or your bitcoin trading results from the exchange, then you exchange them for fiat and you want to withdraw them to your account, I think you should choose the P2P transaction option, and it is the best option for such a situation. IMO

[Blitzboy]

You are expressing the widespread dissatisfaction felt by many crypto fans, including myself. British banks and their peers are acting recklessly, like a bull in a china shop. They have chosen to use the kind of alarmist language we usually hear from established financial institutions rather than take the time to learn and adapt to this new technology. That's like a candle maker complaining about the introduction of electric lighting.

Banks who needed bailing out during the 2008 financial crisis are the ones that are refusing to adopt a new technology due to a few isolated incidences. Wouldn't all these banks have to be shut down because of their past insolvencies and reckless bets if each organisation was evaluated based on the performance of its weakest link?

It's disgusting to see how backwards they've become, but we've come this far before and won. A movement for a concept whose time has come cannot be stopped.

[BIT-BENDER]

Pardon me but I don't know why this is surprising to you or even making you scared, just like UK other government of lots of countries are doing same thing, they are trying to frustrate crypto-currency enthusiast by making Transaction hard in terms of bank and exchange connection.

My country too has such regulations and restrictions but we crypto-currency enthusiast has still always survive infact many more people has got into crypto in my countries.

There are lot of ways to still carry out your crypto activities without any restrictions, you just have to avoid centralized exchange and avoid crypto platform in link with the government.

[el kaka22]

Why would they be any different? I mean they have been favoring the rich and disliking the poor since their creation to be fair, literally since the times of royal lords and regular plebs, we have seen UK be a bit more heavy on the rich and the powerful, so they are not acting any different in this case neither.

UK has been filled with people who have stolen from others and they have never cared about that even once, so it is not going to really change much in the future neither. I am guessing that the best thing to do in this case would be making sure that they are aware of the mistake they have done and take all the crypto companies and money people have in the UK outside, they will see how much tax they would lose that way and would reverse their action.

[cabron]

It's surprising for someone who expects something good that will come up with MICA, it's a regulation that people are waiting for.  It's disappointing if you think it's over and that SEC's crackdown is over after ETF approval and BTC and ETH are considered commodities yet transactions you are to do will be blocked.

It may also crush your heart when you learn all these. And while you have some BTC to sell, means you can't cash out also.
It will turn out to be a punishment when banks are the next in line that will try to regulate transactions. I bet they are the next to spread fud to bring prices down.

[Alpha Marine]

I don't expect the government to be favorable towards crypto, so I don't get surprised by news like these.
It's very hypocritical to punish a whole industry because of the failures of some people while helping out another industry when they crumble. If the FTX saga was a bank the government would have stepped in to really help and make sure it doesn't go bankrupt.

Bitcoin and other coins, and tokens were created without the help of the banks. People can buy coins and tokens without the need of the banks. You have your coins in bank, you do not have the keys yourself. 

However we look at it, it's very difficult to live life without fiat and those fiat are kept in the bank. So we always have business with the banks, especially in some countries. Most people buy their bitcoins with fiat and how do you want to buy without transferring from a bank?

[The Cryptovator]

Traditionally, banks have operated as centralized organizations, adhering to the regulations and instructions set forth by central banks or governments. Consequently, it is uncommon for them to endorse decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. It is unrealistic to expect widespread support for Bitcoin from banks and governments since they are uncomfortable with its inherent lack of control. Bitcoin's decentralized nature makes it impossible for them to exercise authority over it, which goes against their preferred system of control. As a result, they are likely to continue finding excuses to hinder Bitcoin's progress and undermine its viability, despite their inability to fully ban it.