The clients of J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup can not buy cryptocurrencies with credit cards.
On January 25 J.P. Morgan Chase had announced on CNBC that they were allowing purchases of cryptocurrencies by credit card. On the other hand, Bank of America and Citigroup had said they were reviewing their policies regarding purchases of digital currencies by credit card.
However, the policy of J.P. Morgan Chase has experienced a rapid reversal, as a bank spokesperson told CNBC today:
At this time, we are not processing purchases of cryptocurrencies with credit cards, due to the volatility and risk involved. We will review the problem as the market evolves.
Citigroup also said today that it no longer allowed the purchase of cryptocurrencies with a credit card and that it would revise its policy as the crypto market develops, while Bank of America is also decreasing purchases with digital currency credit cards while waiting for policy reviews.
The fall of Bitcoin (BTC) below USD $ 8,000 for the first time since November 2017 could also have scared the big banks, leading them to review their credit card policies. Last week, when J.P. Morgan Chase still allowed purchases of digital coins by credit card, the price of Bitcoin was around USD $ 11,700, according to CoinMarketCap.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who had previously called Bitcoin a "fraud" and threatened to fire any employee who invested in the cryptocurrency, told the World Economic Forum (WEF) on January 24 that he is not "skeptical" with respect to his previous criticism of cryptocurrencies.
BTC is now trading around USD $ 8,780, an increase of 4.45 percent in a 24-hour period at the close of the issue.