Debanking Isn't New—It Was Happening Before Chokepoint 2.0

By Luke Edwards

Operation Chokepoint has received a new wave of attention and scrutiny following a Joe Rogan interview during which Marc Andreesen claimed the government has purposefully debanked more than 30 tech founders. It's not just tech that's paying attention, the crypto industry has been keenly aware of it for years.

But this is not entirely new.

Debanking is a process in which all of a customer's accounts are closed by a bank so that they can no longer access them at all. This started, under the title Operation Chokepoint, during the Obama administration period as a way to clamp down on controversial or high-risk instances like gun shops or marijuana dispensaries.

But keep in mind, the government has been reluctant to acknowledge there's been a concerted effort to limit banking access for crypto firms. Earlier this year, outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler denied having any knowledge of an Operation Choke Point 2.0.

Now, 15 years after the first wave of debanking, Andreesen is accusing Biden's administration of reviving these powers as a way to target political opponents and disfavored tech startups—specifically crypto. But the reality is that this has been going on for a while.

Julian Assange was debanked

Way back in 2010 the Swiss banking arm of the Swiss post office, PostFinance, closed the WikiLeaks founder's account. It did this claiming he'd given false information in relation to his place of residence during the account opening process.

OnlyFans exec had accounts frozen

The CFO of OnlyFans, Lee Taylor, said he was debanked in June 2024, alongside other creators on the subscription site. Lee told the FT: "My bank, where I have my mortgage for my house — where my family and my two children live — froze my account for a month while they went through a compliance procedure.”

He explained: “They weren’t very transparent with me, but I later found out . . . that it was the name of the company that was paying my wages that had caused the compliance review.”

Melania Trump has debanking experience

Former first lady Melania Trump said, in her memoir, that she was dropped by her bank and her son was blocked from opening an account by the same bank. Melania claims the bank was motivated, at least towards her son, by political choices against the Trump family.

Marc Carnegie was debanked in Australia

Debanking appears to go beyond the US with investor Mark Carnegie telling Capital Brief that he has been debanked several times by multiple banks in Australia. The government is aware and said, in 2023, that inaction on debanking will “stifle competition and innovation in the financial services sector”.

Banks being debanked

According to Custodia Bank's CEO, Caitlin Long, she has been debanked repeatedly. She said, in a post online, that she is in a pending lawsuit against the government with an oral argument scheduled for Jan 21.

Former UK MP debanked

The former head of the UK Independence Party, which was one of Brexit's staunchest advocates, had his Coutts account shut down. He claimed it was due to the bank not seeing its values as aligning with his. He posted online: "The establishment are trying to force me out of the UK by closing my bank accounts. I have been given no explanation or recourse as to why this is happening to me."

Edited by Stacy Elliott.

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