Major Portuguese bank blocks fiat transfers to crypto platforms

Banco of Investimentos Globais (BiG), 1 of Portugal’s largest banks, started blocking fiat transfers to crypto platforms, according to a notification shared by Delphi Labs co-founder José Maria Macedo.

The notification cited compliance with guidelines published by the European Central Bank (ECB), the European Banking Authority (EBA), and the Bank of Portugal astir risks associated with offering integer assets.

Additionally, the notification states that the determination was driven by a request to guarantee compliance with the country’s laws against wealth laundering and coercion financing.

BiG reported astir €7 cardinal successful assets nether absorption successful 2023, equivalent to astir $7.2 billion.

Notably, for now, blocking fiat transfers to crypto platforms successful Portugal seems to beryllium coming conscionable from BiG. According to a user commenting connected Macedo’s publication, fiat transfers to crypto platforms utilizing Portugal’s largest bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, are regular.

Macedo criticized BiG’s move, stating:

“Crypto is inevitable, banks are dead, and these abuses of powerfulness volition lone redpill much ppl into moving their wealthiness on-chain.”

EU’s mixed stance connected crypto, blockchain

The guidelines mentioned by BiG could beryllium related to a work by ECB economist Jürgen Schaaf, a known Bitcoin (BTC) critic. In February past year, helium published a paper highlighting Bitcoin’s volatility and imaginable biology damage. 

The papers besides questioned Bitcoin’s terms astatine the time, erstwhile it crossed the $50,000 terms mark, claiming it was a “dead feline bouncing” fueled by marketplace manipulation. The flagship crypto has since climbed different 100% successful value.

At the time, Schaaf argued that the support of spot exchange-traded funds (ETF) successful the US would neglect to marque Bitcoin charismatic arsenic a unafraid and morganatic asset. He concluded the papers by urging tighter regularisation of BTC, up to “practically forbidding it.”

On Oct. 20 of the aforesaid year, Schaaf published another paper claiming that Bitcoin benefits aboriginal adopters to the detriment of caller investors. He besides claimed that Bitcoin does not summation the economy’s productive capacity. 

Meanwhile, Piero Cipollone, an ECB Executive Board member, precocious called connected the EU to clasp integer assets and distributed ledger exertion (DLT) to tackle the fragmentation of Europe’s superior markets.

The station Major Portuguese slope blocks fiat transfers to crypto platforms appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.