... credit card owners banned from buying cryptocurrency

Lloyds Banking Group will on Monday tell its 9 million credit card customers that it will block any attempts to buy Bitcoin after the digital currency lost more than half its value in just two months.

The price of Bitcoin has fallen by 57 per cent from £14,000 in December to less than £6,000 and the bank fears it could end up footing the bill for unpaid debt should the price fall any lower.

It is believed that hundreds of thousands of British people invested in the cryptocurrency last year amid its extraordinary 13-fold increase.