BancoEstado has reopened an account held by crypto exchange CryptoMKT, following a series of account closures by several banks earlier this year.
In April 2018, ETHNews[1] reported that Chile's appeals court had agreed to hear a case brought by cryptocurrency exchanges CryptoMKT, BUDA, and Orionx, which had their accounts closed by Banco Itaú Chile, Scotiabank Chile, and BancoEstado (Chile's only public bank), respectively.
Chile's Tribunal for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC) ordered all three banks to reopen the accounts of the crypto companies.
According to a report by local news outlet La Tercera[2], CryptoMKT co-founder Martín Jofré confirmed that BancoEstado reopened an account held by his exchange last Thursday. It is expected that the bank will reopen BUDA's accounts this week.
The next moves by Scotiabank and Banco Itaú are still unclear. The two banks plan to appeal the court's decision, though they have been ordered by TDLC[3] to keep cryptocurrency exchange accounts open while the case is still pending.
Jofré lamented that 99.8 percent of his platform's funds were returned when CryptoMKT announced its account closure, basically setting the company back to square one. But he hopes that the publicity will make the exchange even more profitable, comparing the situation to Uber[4]:
"It can produce a phenomenon like Uber: the massive use of Uber occurred when taxis blocked the Alameda. That's when everyone started talking about the application, "
Translations by Google.
Nathan Graham is a full-time staff writer for ETHNews. He lives in Sparks, Nevada, with his wife, Beth, and dog, Kyia. Nathan has a passion for new technology, grant writing, and short stories. He spends his time rafting the American River, playing video games, and
