Since a few days ago, German bank Sparkasse, has been blocking cryptocurrency orders, returning money to customers, said Dutch cryptocurrency exchange Anycoin Direct. Several users banking at German bank Sparkasse, reported to Anycoin Direct that they were contacted by their banks with the message that the transactions to buy cryptocurrencies were blocked. Investigating on the matter, Anycoin Direct said that all payment methods available at Sparkasse are affected, including Sofort, online bank transfer and SEPA. Spokesperson Bram Ceelen told Cointelegraph they had not been warned by Sparkasse, although Anycoin Direct tried desperately to contact them. Ceelen stated: "I don’t know …

When Cointelegraph last heard from the team at Dutch Bitcoin service provider BitPlaats.nl in January, they had expanded their Bitcoin vending platform into Belgium. “As we became a more known Bitcoin seller, we started getting request from other European countries,” co-founder Bram Ceelen told Cointelegraph. This is why the founding team decided to think bigger offering Bitcoin buying and selling to the whole of Europe, or at least as many European customers as possible. That led them to create Anycoin Direct, a cryptocurrency trading platform that integrates with many of the continent’s payment systems to allow customers from all over …