Update 20/11/2020: NAB reported on Twitter that the branches were only shut down for a few hours on 18th Nov and the “advice from State and Federal police is that the physical threat is not credible and has been deemed a hoax”.
Millions of residents in Australia have been locked out from cashing their funds, as one of the biggest banks in the country, National Australia Bank (NAB), has reportedly closed all branches. There are chances that the development today can cause some customers to consider cryptocurrencies as another option for monetary transactions. A similar case was witnessed in Venezuela, where banks closed, causing the residents to increasingly adopt cryptos.
NAB Shuts Down Branches for Security Reasons
According to the bank’s notice on Wednesday, it had to temporarily close the branches due to a physical security threat against them. Hence, the decision to halt the banking operations comes as NAB considers its customers’ security as a top priority. While citing the Queensland Police, recent reports claimed that NAB actually received bomb threats across its branches in the country.
As the police have been informed and investigations are ongoing, the bank promised to keep the customers updated about the situation and, perhaps, the safety of their funds. At the moment, however, all the funds remain locked, given that the commercial offices are currently closed. Likewise, the ATMs located within branches are offline.
Does the NAB Situation Promote Crypto?
The NAB is reportedly one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia, with about 859 branches and 9 million customers. There are possibilities that some of the affected customers might eventually adopt cryptos, like Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) as another alternative to process payments or send funds abroad. For instance, the Venezuelan government closed down banks in the country during the severe times of the coronavirus pandemic in March.
Peer-to-peer exchanges (P2P) like Localbitcoins witnessed a sudden spike in trading between Bitcoin and the country’s fiat currency. Transactions with digital currencies can be done peer-to-peer (P2P), which enables users to avoid certain banking fees. More so, international payments with crypto are cheaper compared to traditional methods.