Lloyds Banking Group is preventing its 9 million credit card customers from buying Bitcoin on their cards as of today, but it is not the only major financial institution to limit customers' transactions in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin has now more than halved in value since its peak just two months ago, and fears that many would lose huge amounts of money are beginning to be realised.
A number of companies are now making it difficult for their customers to purchase cryptocurrencies, for reasons ranging from fraud worries to concerns about the risk the companies themselves are taking on.
Fraud concerns
Most banks claim to permit the purchase of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies via debit cards, but in practice many customers report transactions being declined.
This is usually due to the transactions triggering suspicious activity alerts, which means they are not processed.
A Barclays spokesman...