Barclays and HSBC Freeze 3 Crypto Trading Accounts


Barclays and HSBC Freeze 3 Crypto Trading Accounts of a UK-based electric bike retailer. The accounts were frozen hours after the CEO, Scott Snaith made the transactions using his personal account.

27 August, AtoZ Markets – Barclays and HSBC, banks based in the UK have reportedly frozen three accounts belonging to a U.K.-based company called 50cycles after its owner carried out a cryptocurrency transaction on a trading platform using his personal account.

Barclays and HSBC Freeze 3 Crypto Trading Accounts

Scott Snaith, an electric bike retailer based in Leicestershire, U.K. said HSBC and Barclays abruptly froze his two personal and one business account for trading Bitcoin. Hours after trading Bitcoin for cash through a popular P2P trading platform, Mr Snaith discovered that he no longer had access to his accounts at the two UK banks. Mr Snaith made the transaction with his personal account but his business account was also frozen since all three accounts were linked, thus making it difficult to pay staff or suppliers.

According to him, the transaction was “entirely transparent and above board”, and the people involved in the five figure transaction were UK account holders with verified IDs. In spite of this, the banks gave no reason why the accounts were closed. The entrepreneur believes he is a victim of “financial discrimination”.

The professional business owner said;

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“This situation is a complete nightmare and the knock-on effects have been unbelievable. One of my staff left as they had just had a baby and couldn’t afford to be in a job that was unable to pay them, which isn’t surprising […] We are the ones being punished. The banks are deliberately creating obstacles. They are anti digital currency and displaying a new form of financial discrimination.

"Your Funds Are Not Yours”

After seeking the intervention of the Financial Ombudsman, HSBC relented and reinstated his account, but Barclays has refused to do the same.

“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.”

A representative from the bank stated.

Following Barclays refusal, Mr. Snaith said to iNews:

“I’ll never be able to bank with Barclays again. I’m a professional business owner taking advantage of new financial technologies and it looks like the banks are failing to keep up with their customers’ habits…The message is clear: your funds are not yours.”

50cycles To launch World's First Crypto E-bike

In other news, 50cycles will launch world's first crypto e-bike called ‘Toba’ in September. Toba is designed to generate crypto tokens called LoyalCoin for every mile pedaled.

"At the moment we are working with LoyalCoin to reward our customers but eventually the TOBA bikes will have their own digital coin which will become one of thousands of currencies of the future, and the TOBA will allow riders to become an integral part of its growth…It is a way of rewarding our customers and riders who are fully-committed to green transportation.”

Mr. Scott Snaith told Cycling Industry News.

Furthermore, users will be able to exchange TOBA tokens on platforms like Binance for Bitcoin including other numerous available altcoins.

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