Mexico bans crypto from banks after billionaire promotes bitcoin

[ad_1]

Mexico’s central bank warned the country’s banks that cryptocurrencies are banned a day after bitcoin was blocked by one of the country’s most powerful billionaires.

Financial institutions in that country are not allowed to transact or offer to the public transactions with virtual assets like Bitcoin, the Bank of Mexico said in a statement on Monday.

Anyone who issues or offers such instruments will be held responsible for violating these rules and will be subject to applicable penalties, the bank added.

The statement by Mexico’s central bank, which has autonomy from the country’s elected federal government, has been widely seen as a rebuke from President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obradors, the business world’s closest ally.

A day earlier Ricardo Salinas Pliego, a billionaire businessman who runs banking, telecommunications and retail companies and is politically aligned with Obrador endorsed bitcoin on social media.

Bitcoin is a good way to diversify your investment portfolio and I think every investor should study cryptocurrencies and their future, wrote Salinas Pliego.

Financial institutions in that country are not allowed to transact or offer to the public transactions with virtual assets like Bitcoin, the Bank of Mexico said in a statement on Monday. Alamy Stock Photo

Banco Azteca, a bank owned by Salinas Pliego that also operates in El Salvador distinctly pro-bitcoin, was working on ways to allow members of the public to buy cryptocurrency, the billionaire said.

At Banco Azteca, we work to bring them to our customers and continue to promote freedom, he said.

A spokesperson for the business conglomerate Salinas Pliegos Grupo Salinas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the central bank’s statement alters the company’s plans.

With post wires

[ad_2]