Britain to bar consumers from borrowing to buy crypto under new regime

[Oshosondy]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Britain is to restrict consumers' use of credit cards to buy crypto and their access to crypto lending products, the regulator said on Friday, a move aimed at improving protection as cryptoassets are regulated for the first time.

Is this not easy to bypass?

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

Although I support everyone to have freedom to do what they want but some of the duty of the government is to try and protect their citizens the best way they can and even if it can be restrictive. A good example is lockdown and curfews.
One rule I learnt first in crypto is never borrow money to invest and I have found this helpful. So if the government what to secure their citizens from making mistakes then they have a solid argument.

[avikz]

Well, I see it more as a preventive measure. We all know cryptos are volatile. Even though Bitcoin has shown amazing resilience till date, it is highly volatile. Other cryptos are even more volatile than Bitcoin. So it's a good step taken by UK government to restrict its citizens from borrowing funds to invest in cryptos.

Freedom is one thing. But protection of consumers are also very important. I personally have seen people sinking in credit card debt during after 2017 bull run. So it's a good step!

[Rruchi man]

Is this not easy to bypass?

People should know better that borrowing to buy bitcoins is not always the best choice, but since they still do it, what would you suggest should have been a better way for the government to go about it?

Do you think more sensitization or orientation would work?

[Zlantann]

Well, I see it more as a preventive measure. We all know cryptos are volatile. Even though Bitcoin has shown amazing resilience till date, it is highly volatile. Other cryptos are even more volatile than Bitcoin. So it's a good step taken by UK government to restrict its citizens from borrowing funds to invest in cryptos.

But there are some people who might have other means to repay the loan. It might be a genuine way to prevent people from investing in unstable assets, but it will affect people who have well designed investment plans. I can decide to buy Bitcoin with a credit facility and repay it at the end of the month when I receive my salary.  

This policy is clearly targeted at compulsory regulation of how Britons invest in cryptocurrencies. If people can borrow money to buy bonds or stocks, why won't they be allowed to buy Bitcoin.  People should be allowed to make financial decisions and bear the consequences.  I am sure those who borrowed money three years ago to invest in Bitcoin are not regretting it if they sell this year.

[uchegod-21]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Britain is to restrict consumers' use of credit cards to buy crypto and their access to crypto lending products, the regulator said on Friday, a move aimed at improving protection as cryptoassets are regulated for the first time.

Is this not easy to bypass?

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

I am actually of the opinion that the government should restrict people from borrowing for some reasons which I consider very risky and inappropriate. Like borrowing to invest in Bitcoin, borrowing to gamble, borrowing to trade crypto and any other purpose or investment that does not guarantee returns on a specific due date. This is because the chance of defaulting will be very high. It is best for the government to take preventive measures against this.

If I were a lender, I would not lend money to those who come to me to borrow money for any of the reasons I mentioned above. Anyone who wants to invest in a risky asset like Bitcoin should work, earn money, and invest it in Bitcoin.

[coolcoinz]

Is this not easy to bypass?

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

It's just CC for now, so yes, it's easy to bypass. For instance you can use a debit card.

CCs suck. The interest is much higher than you'd get by taking a traditional loan. If you really need to bypass CC and are fine with high interest, you can get an almost instant loan of £1k using various online services. They can send it to your bank account and you can later send the money to a bitcoin exchange.

So what does this law change? Nothing.
A person with money will use cash, wire transfer, or a debit card.
A person with no money will still be able to take a loan and buy bitcoin.

I am actually of the opinion that the government should restrict people from borrowing for some reasons

I thought we bitcoiners are libertarians or anarchists, but it appears there are some authoritarians among us.

[Joy- maker]

It is very risky to borrow money to invest in crypto, that's why I can't advise nor encourage anybody to do that, cryptocurrency is very volatile it price can fluctuate rapidly and unpredictably and it take alot of time before a low income earner to be able to accumulate a good portion of cryptocurrency, how much more borrowing money to invest because I don't know the amount of money someone we borrow to buy crypto and hold, and it also requires patient to be able to hold for a long period of time in other for you to be profitable.

As for the UK government that is restricting their citizens from borrowing money to buy crypto I think the government is doing their citizens good and the government is trying to prevent their citizens from regretting it in the future, because borrowing money to invest cryptocurrency  that is very volatile is not really encouraging at all.

[kotajikikox]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Britain is to restrict consumers' use of credit cards to buy crypto and their access to crypto lending products, the regulator said on Friday, a move aimed at improving protection as cryptoassets are regulated for the first time.

This may be restricting but it makes sense. Why take out a loan for something so risky as crypto as investment? And especially when you are also taking it from a credit card which apply interest and where you have to pay usually every month.

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

I do think institutions should be the one restricted. Obviously they are the ones who need to judge if the money they will be lending can come back and if not then they would not be confident to give away the money.

[joniboini]

I read the article, and it seems there's no further explanation on why they don't restrict institutions from participating in loan or related activities in crypto. Judging from the description, it seems like they're implying that they don't trust retail traders have enough knowledge/understanding to participate in high-risk activities. Kinda understandable if you see some people who go broke after taking a loan and buying crypto at the top.

I second the opinion that if they want to limit people from using a lending platform to finance their trading activity, they should also limit the institutions. There were too many cases where a company went bankrupt because they made stupid decisions and the users lost their money because of that. CMIIW.

[X-ray]

People borrow money to buy stocks all the time, the volatility is no valid reason in my opinion.

Although borrowing to invest in a volatile asset doesn't sit right with me but sometime there's time when it's such a perfect opportunity to buy bitcoin like when bitcoin was still below $20k.

Borrowing at that time already land you massive profit, in that case, the interests will be no problem, I think they should just put threshold or something instead of banning it completely.

[Gozie51]

One responsibility of government is to protect the people in every means that is deem right for the benefit of the people and for greater good of that society. This protection includes lives and properties and acquisition of bitcoin is an asset which also falls under properties. Therefore, if the citizen or people are acquiring bitcoin in a wrong way by only looking at the prospect of profit but not on the risk to the extent of indebtedness if the aim for profit fails, then it behoves on the government whose responsibility extends to asset protection stands in the locus to direct her people. Bitcoin is very expressive and to go for loan of that high amount to buy bitcoin is quite a risk that can turn people into perpetual debtors and that will affect standard of living and the society. So I think it is trite if the UK government is stopping people to borrow money to buy Bitcoin or crypto.

[Free Market Capitalist]

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

Yet another sign of socialism in the UK, which is nothing more than a longing for communism, especially in the totalitarian aspect. They hate individual freedom and want an ever larger state that controls every last aspect of life in society.

One responsibility of government is to protect the people in every means that is deem right for the benefit of the people and for greater good of that society. This protection includes lives and properties and acquisition of bitcoin is an asset which also falls under properties. Therefore, if the citizen or people are acquiring bitcoin in a wrong way by only looking at the prospect of profit but not on the risk to the extent of indebtedness if the aim for profit fails, then it behoves on the government whose responsibility extends to asset protection stands in the locus to direct her people. Bitcoin is very expressive and to go for loan of that high amount to buy bitcoin is quite a risk that can turn people into perpetual debtors and that will affect standard of living and the society. So I think it is trite if the UK government is stopping people to borrow money to buy Bitcoin or crypto.

Do you realize that bitcoin is precisely the opposite of what you say, at least in its original conception? It assumes the freedom of individuals interacting outside the state.

[OcTradism]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

Even I disagree with the UK on this regulation, if I think beyond governmental regulation, I can not deny that invest with loan money is never good approach. It is very risky for investors who take risk with investment, take risk with loan, and the saying we all know is "Invest what you can afford to lose". With loan money, can they afford to lose it?

They will be more like gamblers than investors by borrowing money for investment.

Is this not easy to bypass?

In that country, under their current Prime Minister, government abuse their governmental power to do things they want that often completely conflicts with their citizens' interest. If this trend continues like what happened recent months after the resignment of Borris Johnson, I believe that this bill will be passed easily.

[bitbollo]

These laws are casually launched to "protect" users but in reality these are only and excuse for heavy limits on people wealth.
If you cannot spend your Money how you prefer... You have a serious threath on your wealth!

It Is true that a problem Is clear recognized when people falls in debts for purchasing the last meme coin.
But, in this way they are not really targeting the issue presented by these coins/scam. Their target become anyone that would interact freely with anything related to crypto/Bitcoin.

[Spaceman1000$]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Britain is to restrict consumers' use of credit cards to buy crypto and their access to crypto lending products, the regulator said on Friday, a move aimed at improving protection as cryptoassets are regulated for the first time.

Is this not easy to bypass?

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

I think there should be a way of bypassing the government, from their own analysis they've recorded huge population of the UK citizens that have crypto assets and to them as a government it looks a like a threat, why is it looking like a threat, because they cannot regulate it, so the best way they think they can fight it, is to stop the citizens from using credit card from buying it obviously because of borrowed funds in their credit card. However they can use the funds in their debit cards since it's their actual money and not borrowed money and from what am seeing is that, the restriction is basically on their credit card.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

The United Kingdom government do not want people to borrow money and use it for crypto investment. Retail investors are targeted and not institutions.

LONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - Britain is to restrict consumers' use of credit cards to buy crypto and their access to crypto lending products, the regulator said on Friday, a move aimed at improving protection as cryptoassets are regulated for the first time.

Is this not easy to bypass?

I think this is another way of making their citizens lack freedom of doing something.

As for me, i will have to support them on this, because its not a good thing for anyone to go ahead lending money all in the name of being interested on bitcoin investment, which may later turned a risk and loss of money by any slight chance, starting any business should not be on a ground of loan, instead what we have with us and that has been earned as our starting capital must be used for a start up, so i cant encourage anyone to go for lending services all because they wanted to invest on what is under probability, the government should fight on this and not bitcoin.

[SmartGold01]

This is actually a good step because when considering how volatile cryptocurrency could be it's better not to use money borrowed to invest in cryptocurrency without knowing what the outcome could be, as a government it's their core duty to protect her citizens from making any silly mistakes by borrowing money or using their credit cards to invest in cryptocurrency.

It would be more better to use a personal funds that doesn't have any attachments of lending to invest in cryptocurrencies, and even if they must invest there should be a restriction and limitations on the types of assets they should invest especially avoidance of memecoin, altcoins as well, Bitcoin could be a more stable irrespective that whenever it when low it could regain back its original price or even move above previous price to gain a New ATH whereby they could recovered what they had already lost.

[EL MOHA]

People should know better that borrowing to buy bitcoins is not always the best choice, but since they still do it, what would you suggest should have been a better way for the government to go about it?

Do you think more sensitization or orientation would work?

Yes I think the narrative passed that investing into bitcoin can simply make one get rich is actually overemphasized and as such many people have actually invested money beyond their capacity or more than they can afford to lose. Yes there should be serious orientation or sanitization to investors to help eradicate this narrative they have, this will help people to understand that borrowing money to invest into bitcoin is a bad idea that most often lead incurred by the investor due to selling at the wrong time.

I am actually of the opinion that the government should restrict people from borrowing for some reasons

No I am against the opinion of the government restricting anybody for what is their constitutional right, bitcoin stands for freedom and people should be free to choose what to do. The only thing the government should do is sanitize people on why it is a bad idea to borrow and invest in bitcoins and why it usually does lead to losses

[Slow death]

The government is not wrong, it has always been realistic to tell people to buy bitcoin or altcoins with only money they can afford to lose, because bitcoin is not guaranteed to give anyone a high profit. This is basic investment notion. If there are a lot of people with credit card debts who used the money to buy bitcoin in the hope that they would make a quick profit

and then they start having psychological problems or commit suicide, that will be a big problem for the government to deal with, so since they see that people cannot think rationally for themselves, they are putting these restrictions for their own good.