Another bad news for Bitcoin!

Bitcoin now hovering at price $7,000, it also touche the price $6,000. Now VISA and Mastercard make it harder to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Now, it seems VISA and Mastercard have quietly reclassified the way Coinbase credit card purchases are processed on their networks.

Coinbase transactions (and presumably all other exchanges, as well) are now being labeled as a “cash advance” rather than a “purchase.” Fees will vary by institution, but what this means is that using a credit card will result in an additional 5 percent fee tacked on by your credit card merchant, in addition to the 4 percent credit card transaction fee already passed on by Coinbase.

Even worse is that cash advances do not fall under the standard interest-free grace period that consumers expect for other credit card purchases. The moment the Coinbase purchase goes through, the transaction accrues and compounds daily. If that isn’t bad enough, the interest rate is also higher for cash advances  —  an astonishing 25.99 percent in one case. Lastly, but equally as important for some consumers, these purchases will no longer qualify for earning credit card points.

VISA and Mastercard are doing their best to make it harder, slower and more expensive for people to invest in cryptocurrency. Credit card companies believe it’s in their best interest to turn away millions in additional revenue in exchange for slowing the rush of investment into bitcoin. In many ways, that’s true. The rise of bitcoin and future cryptocurrency is tied to the eventual fall of financial middlemen like VISA and Mastercard. Maybe they just woke up to it.