Portugal's Banco of Investimentos Globais (BiG) has started blocking fiat transfers to crypto platforms. The bank cited compliance with guidelines from the ECB, EBA, and the Bank of Portugal regarding risks associated with digital assets, as well as the need to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering and terrorism financing laws. BiG, one of Portugal's largest banks, reported €7 billion in assets under management in 2023. While this blocking of transfers seems to be specific to BiG for now, the country's largest bank, Caixa Geral de Depósitos, still allows fiat transfers to crypto platforms. José Maria Macedo, co-founder of Delphi Labs, criticized BiG's move and claimed that crypto is inevitable and that banks are dead. The guidelines mentioned by BiG may be related to publications by ECB economist Jürgen Schaaf, who has been critical of Bitcoin in the past. He argued for tighter regulation of BTC and claimed it does not increase the economy's productive capacity. However, another ECB Executive Board member, Piero Cipollone, has called on the EU to embrace digital assets and distributed ledger technology.



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