Investor Roelof Botha, the former chief financial officer of PayPal, shared a letter from Bank of America on Twitter stating that his bank account is being closed. Botha claims that he has been a customer for 20 years and the letter contains no reason why his account should be closed.
After being a customer or @BankofAmerica for 20 years, I received this notice today that they decided to fire me as their customer! With absolutely no explanation…. pic.twitter.com/IJu3peiIWX
– Roelof Botha (@roelofbotha) November 18, 2019
Suspicion is bitcoin
In the letter to Botha, Bank of America, the second largest US bank, only says that they should close the account after “a careful evaluation of its banking relationships.”
Several prominent names within the cryptocurrency industry suggested that the only reason why the bank closed its account is that Botha has bought bitcoin. Michael Arrington, the co-founder of TechCrunch, who happens to be a huge crypto advocate, also says it can’t be anything else.
Boontje for his salary?
It is somewhat ironic, because in the past PayPal has made it difficult for customers who want to buy bitcoin. Also witness this reaction:
And this is exactly what your company @PayPal did to me after ~ 10 years. With absolutely no explanation… #Bitcoin
– genitgenstein (@bitgensteinx) November 18, 2019
Not the first time
Banks have a love / hate relationship with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencys. Well, it really hates. Few banks have commented positively about bitcoin. There are exceptions: ABN Amro tried to make its own wallet some time ago, but stopped developing it.
A recent example: Scott Snaith, the owner of the British bicycle company 50Cycles, saw his personal and business bank accounts frozen. This was a reaction from the bank after he had made a transaction on a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange. As a result, he had no money to pay his employees.
Large parties such as Coinbase also have problems with banks. In August, British banking giant Barclays abruptly ended its partnership with Coinbase in August 2019. The American crypto exchange and Barclays had been doing business since 208, so the bank changed its mind quickly.
Russian banks are also not keen on bitcoin.
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