HSBC Giant Locks Down 19 ATMs, Bitcoin Comes To The Rescue

The HSBC giant locked down about 19 ATM machines in Hong Kong because of the protests and Bitcoin is just an example of how an alternative financial solution can help the citizens during the crises as we are reading further in the latest bitcoin news.

Hong Kong is continuously shaken by protests and this was the reason why the HSBC giant decided to pull back the ATMs in the city-state. ATMs in some parts of the city got locked down because entire areas in the city will be closed for the weekends to avoid damage. The measure was applied right after the protesters damaged two of the bank branches during the past weeks of the protests.

The decision of the banking giant was brought since Hong Kong is the biggest market which makes up about half of the $12.5 billion of pre-tax profits. This was not the first precaution that was taken against the protesters and even back in November, the bank closed the accounts of one of their customers because of being connected to the protests. The increased censorship and low financial options have boosted the demand for alternative sources of the payments.

Hong Kong has about 54 ATMs for various cryptocurrencies but they are getting less and less in comparison to the standard cash machines. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can offer the citizens in Hong Kong an unrestricted means of payment which cannot be controlled by Beijing and not by HSBC. The protests in the city have pointed some of the potential crypto assets to bridge the gap of the sanctions and blocked accounts.
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Hong Kong also relies on LocalBitcoins and the peak trading came back this summer once the protests picked up. The volumes are dwindling as LocalBitcoins enhanced the compliance mechanisms. Some of the twitter users posted:

‘’Where authoritarian regimes have taken full control. The protesters in Hong Kong are also relying on the cryptocurrency to escape the surveillance of the government.”

Hong Kong is basically a Bitcoin powerhouse since it hosts about 155 Bitcoin nodes that are hard to get censored. The city is the 12^th largest hot spot for the Bitcoin network surpassed by only larger markets and regions. In the meantime, it was announced that the Spark Alliance had its bank accounts frozen because of money laundering concerns and also because of providing support to the protesters.  Twitter user Matt Andrews posted:

‘’Another form of censorship, no wonder people have been withdrawing cash and moving money out of Hong Kong bank system altogether. Who knows when your assets will be frozen (just because you don’t agree with the views of Hong Kong authorities).’’