The U.S. House of Representatives is officially investigating whether leading crypto firms were secretly “debanked” during the Biden administration.
On Friday, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, informed numerous industry founders and lobbyists that the inquiry is already underway.
“The Committee… is investigating improper debanking of individuals and entities based on political viewpoints or involvement in certain industries such as cryptocurrency and blockchain,” Comer wrote, in a letter sent to Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, and Uniswap founder Hayden Adams, among others.
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President Donald Trump signed his first crypto-related executive order on Thursday, formally establishing a Presidential Working Group on Digital Asset Markets and laying the groundwork for exploring some of his campaign promises—including potentially establishing a national reserve for Bitcoin and other assets. The Presidential Working Group will advise Trump on matters related to crypto policy and inform his decision-making with regards to the industry. Trump previously announced that the grou...
For years, top crypto executives have claimed that former President Joe Biden’s administration pressured U.S. banks to deny them services, as a means to strangle the industry’s ability to function.
Though numerous Biden officials—including former SEC head Gary Gensler—denied any involvement in such a plot, dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” recently disclosed correspondences between the FDIC and member banks do appear to show a coordinated push to freeze the adoption of crypto in America’s banking system.
In November, Andreessen claimed during an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast to have direct knowledge of over 30 tech founders, many of whom work in crypto, who suddenly lost access to banking services during Biden’s time in office.
Friday’s letter explicitly mentioned that interview, asking Andreessen—and others with similar knowledge—to come forward with specific details about this alleged debanking.
FDIC Took Issue With Banks Using Public Blockchains Like Ethereum, FOIA Docs Reveal
American banks seeking to offer customers services built on public blockchain networks appear to have been discouraged from doing so by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, documents released Friday revealed. The disclosure came courtesy of a trove of newly unredacted crypto-related correspondences between the FDIC and member banks. San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase obtained the documents via the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. Last month, Coinbase secured heavily...
The letter also ties the perceived economic persecution of crypto leaders to that of Trump family members, including Melania Trump. In her recent autobiography, which is quoted in today’s correspondence, the First Lady claimed that both she and her son, Barron, were also debanked during the Biden years.
“These examples are startling, and the Committee is investigating whether this debanking practice originates from the financial institutions themselves or from either implicit or explicit pressure from government regulators,” Chair Comer wrote.
Crypto leaders already appear excited to cooperate with the investigation.
“Lawful crypto organizations and individuals need bank accounts to pay rent, pay taxes, and pay employees—denying them these basic financial services is wrong and should never happen in the United States of America,” Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a crypto lobbying group, said in a statement shared with Decrypt. “We’re eager to get to the bottom of this and end this unlawful practice once and for all.”
SEC Rescinds Controversial Crypto Accounting Rule, Signals Regulatory Shift
On Thursday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rescinded Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) No. 121, signaling a shift in its approach to regulating crypto-assets under Commissioner Hester Peirce, who now heads the agency's newly formed crypto task force. Introduced in March 2022, SAB 121 required companies to record a liability and a corresponding asset for crypto assets held on behalf of users. Critics, including Peirce, argued that the guidance added unnecessary complexity and c...
Donald Trump’s return to the White House this week has already brought about a seismic shift in the federal government’s approach to crypto.
On Thursday, the president signed a sweeping crypto executive order that may soon pave the way for a strategic government crypto reserve. Hours later, the newly Republican-controlled SEC rescinded SAB 121, an agency rule that discouraged U.S. banks from holding crypto.
Even employees of the federal agencies accused of participating in Operation Choke Point 2.0 have become more outspoken in recent weeks. Earlier this month, Travis Hill, Vice Chair of the FDIC, called in a speech for the regulator to overhaul its approach to digital assets and “put an end to any and all Choke Point-like tactics.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
