UK crypto industry groups say banks are slowing adoption by blocking or restricting transfers tied to crypto activity.

The claim lands in a blunt statistic. According to the source text from The Block, “roughly 40% of UK crypto transactions are blocked or restricted by banks.” That is not a theoretical complaint. It is a pass-fail friction point for anyone trying to move fiat in or out of crypto venues.

What the advocates want

The Block reports that banks are pushing for restrictions to tighten. Industry groups, in response, are urging them to ease those restrictions.

This matters because the bottleneck is not on-chain. It sits in the compliance layer of traditional finance, where bank policies determine whether a transfer gets routed through at all.

If transactions are getting blocked in large volume, users and businesses face a simple problem. They can build smart products on crypto rails, but they still need banks to accept the cash movement that makes those products usable.

Why the “40%” number is the headline

A 40% restriction rate is the kind of figure regulators and lawmakers tend to care about because it implies structural impact, not one-off errors.

The source text does not spell out which banks, which crypto services, or what exact failure modes drive the blocks. But even without those details, the core point stands. If nearly half of crypto-related transactions face bank friction, adoption risk shifts from crypto tech to banking gatekeeping.

The deadline question

The Block frames this as part of an ongoing push to change how restrictions work. The immediate consequence for UK crypto operators is uncertainty about how long it takes to get practical relief.

Because the story centers on restrictions being eased “in response,” readers should watch for concrete policy adjustments rather than promises. The difference will show up in what banks do in real transfers, not in conference language.

What to watch next

The next meaningful developments will likely come from formal engagement between industry groups and the banking sector. The goal is straightforward. Reduce the share of crypto-related payments that get blocked or restricted.

Until that happens, assets on crypto networks remain exposed to a parallel risk. Even if a transfer is valid on-chain, the fiat leg can fail first.

That is the uncomfortable trade-off the advocates are pressing: if banks keep choking off the on-ramp and off-ramp, the adoption problem is not really a crypto problem at all.