According to news reports, Barclay's, which is a global bank based in London, just stopped offering services to Coinbase. The Coinbase is a United States-based cryptocurrency exchange. It has reportedly found a replacement banker at ClearBank. The ClearBank services will not be as extensive as what Barclay's offered. Some transactions could take days to process.

In a related report, there was a suggestion that Santander, a Spanish bank, had blocked customers in the United Kingdom from depositing fiat funds into Coinbase. The company denied the rumor. There are still banks attending to Coinbase, including LHV in Estonia. The Estonians are known for a more open approach to blockchain banking.

It took a lot of effort to get Barclay's to serve Coinbase. Their relationship premiered many new banking services for cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms. It could be that the "old guard" of the banking industry created so many regulations that Barclay's had to stop their services to Coinbase. A few past interviews seem to confirm this reasoning.

Also in 2019, Barclay's lead a blockchain hackathon. They wanted to show that they were more than just talk about blockchain security and encryption. However, some of the firm's analysts saw Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a type of viral infection that threatened their safety. Barclay's had a sort of global population model for their theory, with the first to use cryptocurrencies as being "infected" and those interested in them as "susceptible." Those who are "immune" would never buy cryptocurrencies.

A lot of people feel that Barclay's real reason for closing the Coinbase account was due to concerns about money laundering. In the United States, there are a lot of protocols around money laundering investigations and prevention. Banks found to be participating in money laundering can face huge fines in the billions of dollars.

Today's banks have to be up-to-date on technology. The world is changing. Money is digital. People are mobile. Banking is done online. Big banks, with all of their rules and regulations and protocols, cannot always keep up with the changes. Bitcoin fans may have to be flexible as banks change.