Barclays has joined a growing list of British banks imposing restrictions on cryptographic transactions after blocked customers by buying cryptocurrencies with their credit cards.
Announcing the move to its Barclaycard website, Barclays said“From June 27, 2025, we will block crypto-transactions made with a bar bar because we recognize that there are certain risks with the purchase of cryptocurrencies.”
The bank then explained that it imposed the block because a drop in the prices of cryptocurrencies could win its indebted customers, while adding that digital assets are not covered by existing banks and financial protections.
Barclays Move comes after the United Kingdom’s financial regulator, the Authority Conduct Financial Conducts seeks to introduce a general ban on all purchases of cryptocurrency involving credit.
Describing his concerns in a discussionThe FCA said: “We are concerned about the fact that consumers buy cryptographic assets with credit can take an unsustainable debt, especially if the value of their cryptographic assets decreases and that they count on its value to be reimbursed.”
The same article also cited a Yougov survey which revealed that 14% of cryptocurrency investors based in the United Kingdom had used a kind of credit card or credit card to buy crypto in August 2024, against 6% in August 2022.
Barclays’ decision to prevent customers from using their credit cards for cryptocurrency transactions also occurs after similar movements in Chase UK, HSBC and national in 2023.
In the case of Nationwide, he set an expenditure limit of £ 5,000 (approximately $ 6,860) for cryptographic payments using debit cards, which come directly from the customer’s current account.
Going even further, Chase UK has prevented its customers from making any type of transaction for cryptocurrency exchanges and services, whether from a customer credit or debit card.
This crosses a line for some cryptocurrency experts, with the analyst and author Glen Goodman Tell Decipher That, although he can sympathize with a bank stopping the use of credit for cryptography purchases, he does not think that it is just that it can prevent someone from spending his own money.
“If Barclaycard does not want to lend money to crypto merchants, it is their own,” he said. “They need to manage their own risks as they see fit, and they argue that crypto losses are never covered by the financial services remuneration regime.”
However, Goodman added that it really “bored” it when the British banks refuse to let people send their own money on their own bank account to a cryptographic trading account.
“And this happens more often than you think,” he adds.
British banks block cryptography purchases
Indeed, some British banks – as Barclays And Lloyds– I have prevented transfers of all kinds to the Binance for several years now, while Tsb And Santander have banned all crypto purchases since 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Despite actions such as examples of exceeding, Goodman prude against the use of the debt to exchange cryptocurrency, given the risks involved.
“Experienced crypto traders often borrow money to exchange, as are advanced stock markets,” he said. “But you need skills to manage your reasonable risk and many traders are broken when they are wrong.”
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