The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has announced that its customers would no longer be able to use its credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases.
In an official announcement on February 14, CBA said:
“Virtual and crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin have yet to meet a minimum standard of regulation, reliability, and reputation.
“Due to the unregulated and highly volatile nature of virtual currencies, customers will no longer be able to use their CommBank credit cards to buy virtual currencies. This will come into effect as of 14 February 2018.”
The CBA said that this restriction on credit card usage for virtual currencies will also apply to Bankwest credit cards. However, customers would still be able to buy cryptocurrencies using other CommBank transaction accounts, and their debit cards.
The announcement follows similar moves by UK-based Lloyds Bank and a number of US banking majors including JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citigroup.
