EXCLUSIVE – Wells Fargo will not be joining some of the other big banks in banning its customers from purchasing cryptocurrency with their credit/debit cards, Bank Innovation has learned.

Wells Fargo, senior VP of senior vice president, design and delivery leader in the Innovation Group at Wells Fargo told Bank Innovation in a recent interview that the bank currently doesn’t block any cryptocurrency purchase on its cards, debit or credit.

This view stands in contrast with some of Wells Fargo’s rivals, including Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, all of whom do not allow the purchase of any cryptocurrency on their cards.

Barclaycard, U.S. operations of Barclays, told Bank Innovation that it plans on banning cryptocurrency purchases on its cards as well. In fact, Paul Wilmore, CMO at Barclaycard  Paul Wilmore told Bank Innovation that purchasing cryptocurrency is a “purely speculative purchase,” comparing it to gambling related transactions, which, incidentally, are not allowed on their credit cards either.

Many banks started growing skeptical of cryptocurrency after the crypto market displayed extreme volatility in the past few months, especially with the price of bitcoin. Even though, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trade Commission (SEC) presented a mildly optimistic outlook on the cryptocurrency phenomenon, many banks remain wary.

Wells Fargo does not seem to be one of them.

Today, bitcoin is back up, trading at $10,346, according to Coinbase. Still, it’s quite far away from its all-time high just short of $20K.

To learn the latest developments on cryptocurrency, join us on March 5-6, 2018 at the Parc 55 in San Francisco for Bank Innovation 2018. Click here to register.