Earlier this week, BMO Financial Group (Bank of Montreal) has banned credit and debit card customers from buying cryptocurrencies, another blow for the crypto-traders who recently saw a sizable number of banks deciding not to finance the cryptocurrency asset class.
BMO’s decision followed several of the biggest Canadian banks banning cryptocurrency transaction over the past few months, as part of a global crackdown led by major lenders and credit card issuers. Canada’s largest bank Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Bank) has blocked attempts to buy digital currencies last month.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Canada’s second-largest bank by assets, didn’t cut off card purchases but said it would allow transactions involving cryptocurrency only “in limited circumstances.”
Solution
This chart is volume of localbitcoins buying and selling in CAD. It shows volume shot up from less than $1.2 million to more than $7.2 million in the period of the last 3 weeks, compared to previous 3 weeks. That is a 6x increase in a very short timeframe.
Canadians obviously won’t be stopped by the bank-imposed ban and will simply circumvent them by using p2p platforms like localbitcoins.
This is actually the whole point of crypto and bitcoins in general: individual freedom. The hypocrisy of governments and banks is more than well-known to all of us and their alleged “consumer protection” is actually direct attack on human rights.
Individual freedom is derived from economic freedom – you have the right to spend your money the way you want, not the way banks will let you.
Seeing all of this, it is crucial to understand the importance of p2p platforms and decentralized exchanges. Development of such platforms is essential for the survival of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general.
LocalBitcoins has been around since 2012, connecting Bitcoin buyers and sellers on an open, peer-to-peer marketplace. There are plenty of reasons to recommend Local Bitcoins as a secure and easy-to-use trading platform.
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