BY DAYO ADESULU
At the wake of lockdown over CODVID-19 in the United States of America, the Senate approved $1,200 as a stimulus package for staying at home due to the coronavirus movement restriction.
The money will, therefore, served as a palliative for American citizenry. However, Americans have found it difficult to cash the money as seven banks in the U.S fumble with the payment of the stimulus as the financial system shows massive cracks.
The affected financial institutions where customers complained they could not cash their money include PNC, JPMorgan Chase, US Bank, and Capital as the institutions complained about technical issues.
Reports note that banks like Capital One, US Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, PNC, and even Paypal customers have been dealing with problems.
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According to bitcoin.com, circumstantial evidence shows that a decent number of people who managed got their stimulus money have spent the funds on cryptocurrencies.
They want a blockchain technology system where the owner of money would be in charge of its money. Many of the customers who bought bitcoins with their stimulus believe that the cryptocurrency is safer and that they could gain access to their money to pay for goods and services anytime without unnecessary delay.
Bitcoin.com reports this week that the technological backbone of the banking system is struggling immensely.
Similarly, the Washington Post (WP) reports that many financial institutions are relying on software that is decades old. Moreover, a myriad of banking institutions didn’t keep their infrastructure adequately staffed, even though they made record profits in 2019.
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But the blockchain technology which drives the cryptocurrency does not have such problem. In the case of cryptocurrency, withdrawers and payment are done in seconds to any customer anywhere in the world. The owner of the bitcoin is the bank manager of his money. He has access to it anytime anywhere globally where he can immediately pay for goods and services.
The WP columnists stressed that if the antiquated banking system continues to have major issues, citizens won’t be “able to pay bills or buy groceries and further exacerbate the economic decline.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. government said over 80 million stimulus payments were sent out this week. Paypal customers have also been upset with the company, as a number of people have been locked out of the Paypal system for no apparent reason.
One person on Reddit explained how during the global lockdown, Paypal decided to lock his account that held a $3,000 balance for 180 days.
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A Paypal customer on Sunday said: “In a time where the majority of the population is struggling with money, these thieves are able to lock funds just like this, potentially leaving people without anything.
“The funds came in my company’s fully verified account from one transaction of a single client, with a regular invoice, contract and VAT ID. No fraud or any other illegal business like they’re trying to say. I’ve been so relieved and happy to have the majority of my savings in bitcoin,” he added.
Further, people have been speculating that some Americans are spending their stimulus checks on cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted on April 16 a chart that showed a spike in $1,200 deposits on the San Francisco-based exchange.
The financial columnist Paddy Baker explained that a representative from, Binance US also noted that people have been depositing $1,200 increments.
“People do seem to have deposited exactly $1,200 into Binance US in the past couple of days,” the Binance spokesperson said.
Statistics from Crypto Compare also show that USD pairings with top digital currencies like BTC and BCH have seen an exponential increase in daily swaps.
