Crypto-Friendly Banks in Australia (and the Other Ones)

Best banks for buying crypto: The CoinJar definitive list of top crypto-friendly banks in Australia (and the other ones!).

We define crypto-friendly banks to mean banks that allow customers to make transfers to exchanges to buy and sell crypto.

CoinJar has spoken to multiple banks, and also to the people who use them. This is to find out the lay of the land when it comes to moving money on and off crypto exchanges in Australia.

Many banks in Australia have varying policies regarding .

Most of them have imposed restrictions on their customers when it comes to transferring money to crypto exchanges.

Their rationale is that there are numerous scams in the crypto space. However, some individuals that these policies may also stem from the fact that crypto and pose competition to the traditional banking industry.

Deposits vs Withdrawls

While some financial institutions may impose restrictions on deposits to cryptocurrency exchanges, withdrawals from CoinJar to bank accounts are typically supported. However, you may be unable to complete the initial deposit required for account verification due to:

-The deposit originating from a bank account that is not linked to your CoinJar account. -The legal name on the depositing bank account does not match the name registered on your CoinJar account.

Please contact CoinJar support at support@coinjar.com. Our team will gladly assist you with manual verification to link a bank account.

So here is our definitive list of which banks are crushing it in terms of crypto-friendliness, and the ones that are not.

Number One: ANZ

(ANZ) seems to be very easy to work with if you want to buy and sell crypto via exchanges like CoinJar.

ANZ does not have a publicly available policy regarding the maximum amount of money you can transfer from your ANZ account to a crypto exchange. However, a simple call to will provide information about their policies.

According to an ANZ spokesperson, there are currently on the amount you can send to a cryptocurrency exchange.

However, if you are a new customer making your first transfer to a crypto exchange, this transaction might trigger the fraud detection team. Consequently, the transaction could be held for up to 72 hours. Once the fraud team understands your intentions and identity, your future transactions should be smooth sailing, theoretically.

Limits on ANZ

The ANZ spokesperson emphasised that there are no restrictions on the amount you can transfer to crypto exchanges. However, as with any transaction, there are limits based on the payment method you choose.

For pay-anyone transfers, the standard daily limit is $25,000. If you use BPay, a single transaction can go up to $50,000 per day. Additionally, internet banking has a daily limit of $75,000.

It’s important to note that this policy is still evolving at ANZ, and changes may occur. Before opening an account at ANZ, consider making a call to verify the most up-to-date information.

Keep in mind that ANZ blocks payments to Binance, and also restricts access to the DeFi platform SafeHaven.io. If you intend to use either of these platforms, ANZ may not be the right bank for you.

If this information remains accurate, and the fraud team verifies your authenticity, it seems that ANZ, at least at first glance, is a highly crypto-friendly bank.

ANZ Plus

ANZ Plus is a different bank to ANZ, so they have different rules.

ANZ is a traditional Australian bank. ANZ Plus, on the other hand, is ANZ's digital-only banking platform designed for a simplified, mobile-first experience. It is accessed via an app.

It is a kind of new bank in the style of other “neo-banks” that are popping up all over the world. More or less, they are trying to appeal to younger customers who don’t need or expect the in-person experience of going to bank branches and speaking to humans.

So with this being a separate bank brand, it has variations in rules about transferring funds to crypto exchanges.

So as for , in a nutshell, customers cannot transfer more than $10,000 per month to crypto exchanges from their ANZ Plus account.

Also to transfer money to a crypto exchange, there is a “toggle” switch in the app. More or less, you can hit a button that then allows you to transfer funds into a crypto exchange account.

ANZ Plus , “Before you try to make payments to crypto exchanges, you'll need to disable your Crypto Protect setting.”

While ANZ Plus says that the $10,000 limit will be applied, even after you toggle the switch on, there may not be limits after all. Many of our customers have told us that while their banks have said there are limits, they don’t have any trouble moving money from their bank to crypto exchanges. Maybe you’ll have to try it to find out!

NAB

is crypto-friendly, in CoinJar’s opinion.

During a conversation with an representative, CoinJar found that while NAB does block certain crypto exchanges associated with scam activity, they are receptive to legitimate, registered exchanges like CoinJar.

The spokesperson informed CoinJar, “CoinJar, Coinspot, Swyftx and Coinbase are all okay. This is not an exhaustive list, however.”

How much money can you transfer from your NAB bank account to an approved crypto exchange? According to the spokesperson, “$40,000 a day. I will just caveat that initially, you may be flagged for the first couple of transactions. We will have to have that conversation with you just to make sure everything's okay.”

After that, it should be plain sailing.

Security and NAB

A on the NAB website says, “Scammers often use cryptocurrency exchanges that may not be effectively regulated, transactions are harder to trace and recover, and they offer the ability to make money transfers to international and domestic destinations very quickly.”

So what happens if you’re an NAB customer attempting to transfer funds from your NAB account to a blocked crypto exchange like Binance? If you use your NAB Visa credit or debit card or PayID for such a transaction, it will be declined. You’ll see it listed in your payment history as ‘Rejected.’

However, there’s a silver lining: If you wish to withdraw money from any blocked crypto exchange and deposit it into your NAB account, you can still do so — even if certain exchanges are restricted for depositing transfers.

Bank Australia

allows you to transfer up to $10,000 per month to exchanges. However, if the bank’s systems pick up a suspicious transaction, they may block the deposit.

If a deposit is blocked, all customers have to do is to contact Bank Australia's customer service team to verify that the transaction is intended for purpose.

UBank

UBank, a digital bank owned by National Australia Bank (NAB), has emerged as a potentially crypto-friendly option for Australian users.

The bank doesn't have an official policy against cryptocurrency transactions. However there are a few caveats when you first start off.

Approximately 80%-90% of crypto-related transactions may initially trigger account blocks or transaction holds. In most cases, these issues can be resolved by contacting UBank directly.

Once contacted, UBank typically allows the transaction to proceed and unblocks the account.

UBank's customer service is available 8 am to 8 pm, Monday to Friday. So if you are making a transaction on the weekend, you may have to wait.

This policy is subject to change in the future, so stay informed about any updates to UBank's stance on cryptocurrency transactions by checking their website regularly.

Bank of Queensland

CoinJar customers may be interested in the BOQ Money Market Account offered through . This account provides a reliable option for transferring funds to and from cryptocurrency exchanges, with no current restrictions on such transactions.

While the standard daily transaction limit is $10,000, it can be temporarily increased to $100,000 with a simple phone call. Readers should be aware that the account setup process may take slightly longer for SMSF customers.

Crypto-unfriendly banks in Australia

Here are the banks that give us sad face.

ING: No longer crypto-friendly

Update as of 10/09/2024

We have seen a spike in people across many different forums reporting difficulties in transferring funds from their ING accounts to crypto exchanges. We have contacted their spokesperson and await a reply. We will update you as soon as we know.

and crypto friendliness: ING was formerly considered crypto friendly. This means that if you had an ING account, you could easily transfer money to a like CoinJar, which deals with cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin or Ethereum).

ING originally told CoinJar that they don’t have any particular limits on how much you can transfer from your ING bank account onto cryptocurrency exchanges like CoinJar. They also don’t have any crypto exchanges or brokers banned.

But this seems to have changed as reports are coming in from crypto enthusiasts that more than one platform is has been blocked. We will keep you updated.

Deposit limits and delays

Before September 2024, did not impose any specific limits on deposits. However, there was a catch: if you deposited more than $1,000, the transaction got delayed by one business day. So, if you were transferring a large amount, you’d need to be patient.

ING doesn’t support PayID or Osko transfers for amounts over $1,000 per day. These are fast payment methods used for instant transfers.

In simpler terms, if you want to send more than $1,000 quickly, you might need to explore other options beyond ING.

Limitations at ING

ING don’t offer business accounts. So if you are a professional crypto trader or run your crypto adventures through your business bank accounts, this isn't going to be the bank for you.

If you use your personal account for business, this breaches their terms and conditions and they might close your account.

First transactions

The spokesperson explained to us that, “Our systems are learning systems.” So it works out as it goes along what are “bad” places to transfer your money to from an ING account.

Also sometimes ING customers can get crypto transactions flagged and stopped, but usually once they work out who you are and what you are doing, they release the transfer.

The ING spokesperson told CoinJar earlier in 2024, “We're not going to dictate to you how you use your accounts unless it goes against our terms and conditions.”

However this may have changed.

If you want to sign up to ING, you can do it all online, as they don’t have physical branches.

Westpac

According to Westpac’s representative, you can’t deposit funds from to crypto exchanges at all. Well, that’s what they told us.

But it appears that banks officially state one thing while their actions suggest another. This phenomenon isn’t unique to a single bank in Australia; it’s widespread.

For instance, during an extensive conversation with a Westpac spokesperson, we were informed that transactions from Westpac accounts to crypto exchanges would not be processed.

However, in our own testing, we deposited approximately $200 from a Westpac account to a crypto exchange without any issues. However, when we attempted a $30,000 transfer to a different exchange, the Westpac fraud team promptly contacted us.

Westpac also to treat all crypto exchanges equally, without distinguishing between questionable overseas exchanges and locally-based exchanges registered with AUSTRAC.

Unlike some other banks — for instance, ANZ, which has blocked Binance but not other locally-registered exchanges — Westpac seems to have implemented a blanket ban policy on all crypto exchanges.

Either way, because of that customers can’t deposit AUD into crypto exchanges, we are putting them in the crypto-unfriendly category.

Commonwealth Bank

The Commonwealth Bank have recently become a very crypto-unfriendly bank due to the in their policies. They now impose limitations on payments to cryptocurrency exchanges.

Specifically, has capped transfers at $10,000 per calendar month per account. If individuals intend to move more significant amounts onto a crypto exchange, the Commonwealth Bank’s policy might not align with their needs.

CoinJar users experience swift fiat transfers via CBA

There may have been a defrosting of CBA crypto policy recently. CoinJar customers using Commonwealth Bank Australia for fiat deposits are reporting seamless and efficient transactions.

Our users have confirmed that their funds have successfully reached their CoinJar accounts within approximately two hours.

This is despite the CBA saying that they will be transactions made to crypto exchanges.

Macquarie Bank

This bank gets a big “L” in terms of crypto friendliness. spokesperson said they don’t allow any customer to transfer any money onto any crypto exchange, ever.

While this is their official line, we also know people who have accounts at Macquarie Bank and they say they deposit onto crypto exchanges all the time and they don’t have problems.

So again, it seems like the public stance of the bank is different from reality. Even so, they still make the cut as the most crypto-unfriendly bank in our list, simply because of their public stance against crypto.

HSBC - Super unfriendly to crypto

HSBC has a new policy as of July 2024 that all payments to every single cryptocurrency exchange will be declined by the bank. Boohoo.

say this is because of an increase in scams with the funds difficult to recover.

Or could it be that people are starting to use crypto holdings like Bitcoin as savings instead of banks? I guess we will never know. What we do know is that if you are a customer of HSBC you aren't going to be able to live your best crypto life.

Bankwest

seems to have updated their crypto policy but have not really been specific on their website about what is really going on.

When we tried to transfer money from our BankWest account to a crypto exchange, the bank app told us that the receiving account was not recognised. However, we just switched to Apple Pay and the money got through, appearing in our the crypto exchange’s account almost right away.

We contacted BankWest to ask if their policy had changed, and they said it had, and the details were on their website, but we couldn’t work out what had changed specifically.

But more or less, their spokesperson told us that probably no funds will get through to any crypto exchange. Booo!

Extra things to know: Withdrawing local currency from crypto exchanges to Wise

, a global financial technology company known for international money transfers, now allows users to withdraw fiat currency from select cryptocurrency exchanges directly to their Wise accounts.

How to do it:

• -Sign up for an account.
• -Link your Wise account to your CoinJar account.
• -Convert your crypto to your local currency and withdraw the funds into your Wise account.

Wise currently only supports crypto exchanges registered in the UK or EU, excluding Binance. Because CoinJar is registered in the UK, it means that Australian users can withdraw AUD off CoinJar and into their Wise accounts.

This is made possible by Wise's direct membership in Australian payment systems. Some customers have had success transferring fiat from their Wise account to crypto exchanges.

This development simplifies the process of moving money between the crypto world and traditional banking systems, offering a convenient solution for users to access their crypto funds.

Business Banking - Different Rules?

We have seen instances where transfers to crypto exchanges using Commonwealth Bank’s business accounts were successful. We speculate that CBA may not impose restrictions on business accounts in the same way they do on individual accounts. Instant Deposit: A business user successfully deposited funds into their crypto exchange account, and it was processed instantly.

CommBiz Platform: The client used CommBiz, CBA's business banking platform, for the transaction.

Deposit Limits: Smaller deposits (under $2,500) are usually instant. Larger initial deposits may trigger a verification call before becoming instant. After verification, transfers should be instant and unlimited (up to a daily limit of $150 million). Verification Calls: Larger deposits, even from corporate accounts, might require a one-time verification call from the bank.

Corporate vs. Individual Accounts: It appears there are differences in how CBA handles transactions from corporate and individual accounts. Corporate accounts, especially through CommBiz, might have higher limits and faster processing times.

Business bank accounts

It doesn’t seem to just be CBA that this applies to. The transaction limits for transferring funds from business bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges in Australia appear to be significantly higher than those for individual accounts at all of the major banks (the "Big Four").

For instance, National Australia Bank (NAB) allows businesses to utilise NAB Connect for transfers to crypto exchange platforms like CoinJar, with the verification call threshold considerably higher (estimated between $25,000 and $50,000).

While subsequent follow-up inquiries may occur, the overall transaction limits remain notably high. And, the standard cryptocurrency restrictions imposed on individual accounts do not seem to apply to business accounts.

Smaller banks, which may not have separate business banking platforms, could have different policies regarding cryptocurrency transactions, however.