BITCOIN’S price could be about to experience a dramatic fall after Finnish banks blocked transactions from major cryptocurrency exchange Prasos Oy, surely worrying a slew of Nordic investors, it has emerged.
Four banks in the region have blocked transactions from Prasos Oy as the country appears to be rejecting the cryptocurrency exchange as well as its competitors.
Henry Brade, the Chief Executive Officer of Prasos, stated that the growth of “international transaction volumes” has begun to “disturb banks”.
He explained: “We’ve realised that the growth in international transaction volumes started to disturb the banks.
“Along the way, we’ve been given very little information by the banks on what we could do to solve the problem.”
“So it’s an affair between the company and the bank.”
Bitcoin is a volatile currency and its value has almost plummeted by $2,000 in the last week - the cryptocurrency is currently selling for $9,532.34.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin are all similarly experiencing downward trends.
They are worth $1,117.77, $722 and $187.72 respectively.
Prasos is responsible for running Bittiraha.fi and Coinmotion.com as well as others.
Exchange investors are able to exchange Bitcoin into euros.
Banks are understood to be declining exchanges due to fears of getting into trouble surrounding money laundering rules.
In response to the mounting pressure, Prasos stated that it wants regulators to set guidelines for it to follow that would allow it to keep trading.
It added that it has developed “identification practises” that “fully comply with anti-money laundering rules and regulations” as it desperately seeks to avoid negative consequences that could dramatically affect the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In a statement, the exchange said: “We’ve created identification practices, which we have taken into use in March, and they comply fully with anti-money laundering laws and regulations, even though authorities do not even require this from us as our business in not under regulatory obligations.”
Andrea Enria, the head of the European Bank Authority (EBA), the regulatory agency of the EU, hinted that the EBA would most likely tell banks to avoid going near cryptocurrency transactions for the time being.
Hanna Heiskanen, a senior advisor at the regulator, said: “Cryptocurrency trading places are not currently under the regulatory mandate of the Finnish FSA.