Barclays and HSBC have allegedly blocked three accounts of a U.K.-based electric bike retailer for having traded Bitcoin for cash through a popular P2P trading platform hours earlier. The alarming situation comes five months after crypto exchange Coinbase opened a bank account with Barclays.
Scott Snaith, a retailer based in Leicestershire, U.K., had two personal and one business account blocked by HSBC and Barclays for having traded Bitcoin in exchange for cash with U.K. account holders with verified IDs. The banks offered no explanation for the unilateral decision despite the “entirely transparent and above board” five-figure transactions, according to the entrepreneur.
The business linked to the closed account is 50cycles, a retailer of the cryptocurrency earning electric bike Toba. Focusing on innovative electronic bikes since its foundation in 2003, from folding e-bikes to the world’s first e-bike to use Lithium-ion batteries in 2004, the business is now riding the cryptocurrency wave by selling bikes that generate tokens that can be exchanged in the LoyalCoin network of retailers or traded for Bitcoin et al.
Following Snaith’s complaint, HSBC reinstated his account, but Barclays still refuses to do so. A spokesman from the bank said, “Barclays is complying with its legal and regulatory obligations and we never take the decision to issue a notice of closure, or end a client relationship, lightly.”