Bitcoin

VISA and Mastercard Increase Fees for Crypto

Buying cryptocurrency on any crypto exchange using a credit card will cost 10% more
06 February 2018   1699

Last week investors started noticing additional fees on their bank statements. Both Mastercard and VISA decided to change the way cryptocurrency purchases are processed on their networks.

Most people who purchase cryptocurrency using a credit or debit card were charged the standard 4% transaction fee. From now on customers will have to pay additional 5% fee to a credit card provider as well as 4% service fee to the exchange.

At the moment, transactions to purchase any cryptocurrency are considered  as a “cash advance” rather than a “purchase.”

Moreover, cash advances do not fall under the standard interest-free grace period that consumers expect for other credit card purchases. Cryptocurrency transactions are accrued and compounded daily. The interest rate is also higher for cash advances forming 25.99 % in one case.

This means that charges applied to any crypto purchase using a credit card will equal 10% plus interest.

By reclassifying crypto exchanges, VISA and Mastercard intend to complicate investing in cryptocurrency.

BitcoinBlockchain

SEC to Need More Info on BTC ETF

SEC is gathering more input from the public – to date, according to the agency, more than 1,400 comments have been submitted
21 September 2018   183

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the beginning of a formal process for considering the application for the creation of bitcoin-ETF from the New York companies VanEck and SolidX. Nevertheless, the agency appealed to the community for more information. This is stated in the document published on the SEC website.

Institution of such proceedings is appropriate at this time in view of the legal and policy issues raised by the proposed rule change. Institution of proceedings does not indicate that the Commission has reached any conclusions with respect to any of the issues involved. Rather, as described below, the Commission seeks and encourages interested persons to provide comments on the proposed rule change.
 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission

At the moment, the SEC received about 1,400 comments.

According to the document, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) has signed an agreement on the exchange of data on bitcoin transactions, trading and the state of the market with the cryptocurrency trading platform with Gemini.

The agency asked commentators to clarify the position of Gemini in the digital currency market and assess the likelihood of increased volatility at this site in connection with possible trades of bitcoin-ETF.

So, before September 30, the department had to decide on whether to approve, deny or initiate the proceedings. The SEC chose the latter, which is likely to delay the process until the next year.