{"id":7343,"date":"2025-08-10T00:34:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T00:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/trump-shuts-down-operation-chokepoint-2-0-with-sweeping-anti-debanking-order\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T00:34:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T00:34:09","slug":"trump-shuts-down-operation-chokepoint-2-0-with-sweeping-anti-debanking-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/trump-shuts-down-operation-chokepoint-2-0-with-sweeping-anti-debanking-order\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump shuts down \u2018Operation Chokepoint 2.0\u2019 with sweeping anti-debanking order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">In a sweeping move hailed by crypto advocates, President Trump signed an executive order barring federal agencies from pressuring banks to cut off entire industries\u2014a tactic critics dubbed \u201cOperation Chokepoint 2.0.\u201d The order marks a decisive win for firms long frozen out of the financial system, particularly in digital assets, but legal analysts warn that regulators could still target individual companies under the guise of risk management.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_5d1ab0d72abb4c392561e0d0673da193\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For years, the FDIC pressed banks to deny services to clients involved in crypto transactions<\/li>\n<li>Donald Trump signed an executive order titled \u201cGuaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,\u201d prohibiting such practices<\/li>\n<li>Nic Carter warns banks may continue to deny services, unlawfully disguising politically motivated denials as business-driven<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is cancelled<\/h2>\n<p>While Operation Chokepoint was never officially confirmed as critics described, the allegations gained traction in early 2023 when venture capitalist Nic Carter and others claimed U.S. regulators were informally pressuring banks to cut ties with crypto firms. They cited account closures, regulatory warnings about crypto risks, and heightened scrutiny of bank\u2013crypto relationships after the collapses of Silvergate, Signature, and Silicon Valley Bank.<\/p>\n<p>The new anti-debanking executive order is therefore considered a win for the U.S. crypto community. The main statement of the Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans order reads:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIt is the policy of the United States that no American should be denied access to financial services because of their constitutionally or statutorily protected beliefs, affiliations, or political views, and to ensure that politicized or unlawful debanking is not used as a tool to inhibit such beliefs, affiliations, or political views. Banking decisions must instead be made on the basis of individualized, objective, and risk-based analyses.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">If Operation Choke Point taught us anything, it\u2019s that banks must never be used as partisan tools to isolate Americans or destroy lawful businesses.<br \/>\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">@POTUS<\/a>\u2019s Executive Order sends a clear message: financial institutions are not weapons for political warfare against citizens or\u2026 <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4RRmeKBGKT\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/t.co\/4RRmeKBGKT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenatorHagerty\/status\/1953559845745176931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 7, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The order isn\u2019t aimed at solely protecting the cryptocurrency space. It mentions the Obama-era Operation Chokepoint that, they allege, targeted political opponents (the initiative focused on rooting out fraud). <\/p>\n<p>With the so-called Biden-era Operation Chokepoint 2.0, the crypto community claimed that certain hedge funds and other organizations were blocked from banking services because of their involvement with digital assets. <\/p>\n<p>Often, these clients were kept unaware of the reasons behind the service denial. Some <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/operation-chokepoint-20-crypto-debanking-conspiracy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">were told<\/a> it\u2019s because of crypto. Coinbase\u2019s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, pointed out that businesses not involved in crypto operations didn\u2019t face such problems.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>Carter, as well as Sen. Cynthia Lummis, Paul Grewal and prominent crypto advocate Caitlin Long attempted to shed light on the unlawful practices mostly coming from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, with <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/digital-assets\/2025\/02\/05\/operation-chokepoint-20-fdic-documents-confirm-crypto-bias\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">evidence<\/a> stemming from the documents obtained via Freedom of Information Act request.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Soon, the issue was brought to the attention of the government. The Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jerome Powell criticized the FDIC\u2019s guidelines. Trump expressed his negative stance on the debanking too. Vice President JD Vance prematurely <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/shorts\/QfhNhxhIElI\" rel=\"nofollow\">declared<\/a> Operation Chokepoint 2.0 dead back in May 2025. Caitlin Long criticized Vance, stating it was an exaggeration because the tools targeting the crypto industry were still in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notable reactions to the order<\/h2>\n<p>Long was among those who commented on the anti-debanking executive order. Long said it has some \u201chidden gems\u201d and lauded the White House\u2019s understanding that federal banking regulators are not the ones to trust.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">2\/ The overseer\ud83d\udc47: SBA, a *non-bank* regulator. This speaks volumes: POTUS understands the abuses of power that gave rise to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/debanking?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">#debanking<\/a> run deep in the agencies. Look up the political contributions of Fed &amp; FDIC staff\u2013they lean heavily Dem (eg, Fed staff gave 92% to Dems in &#8217;24) <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ml3njogw2o\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/ml3njogw2o<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Caitlin Long \ud83d\udd11\u26a1\ufe0f\ud83d\udfe0 (@CaitlinLong_) <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaitlinLong_\/status\/1953669837517205584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 8, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Long points out that the order creates an overseer entity, the Small Business Administration, outside of the banking sphere that will be supervising banks to make sure they are not denying services. Caitlin Long stresses that it means that the White House doesn\u2019t trust the agencies that existed before: the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC.<\/p>\n<p>She <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CaitlinLong_\/status\/1953669839786291625\" rel=\"nofollow\">notes<\/a> that the person appointed to head SBA, Kelly Loeffler, is a bitcoiner, meaning that the interests of crypto businesses are now better protected. Long points out that the law doesn\u2019t include the word \u201ccrypto\u201d at all and contains a broad notion of \u201cpoliticized or unlawful debanking.\u201d We are yet to see if such a broad definition will be misused.<\/p>\n<p>The lack of accuracy in determining what is unlawful debanking was moderately <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/murmurationstwo.substack.com\/p\/reactions-to-trumps-debanking-executive\" rel=\"nofollow\">criticized<\/a> by Nic Carter. According to him, the concerning type of debanking is denying the services to a client because the bank considers that serving this entity is politically too risky, even though the entity is law-abiding.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Carter refers to Cato\u2019s Nick Anthony post, in which he outlined the difference between governmental and operational debanking. The latter is based on the business decisions, for instance, if clients cannot pay for the services or shareholders protest providing services to some clients (for example, in 2019, following criticism, JPMorgan decided to stop financing private prisons). <\/p>\n<p>In contrast, governmental debanking is when the government pressures banks to deny services to some clients based on political preference. It can occur via direct request or by adopting some policies targeting certain bank clients.<\/p>\n<p>According to Carter, the order \u201cwill prove difficult to determine whether a bank fired a client because of their political views or line of work, or because the bank viewed that client as excessively costly (potentially due to regulatory pressure).\u201d He corroborated:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho is to say [\u2026], whether the client was fired because they were donating funds to crowdfunding in Gaza or because the bank felt that that would entail additional burdensome compliance costs for maintaining the account? Regulators aiming to redline certain industries could, in theory, continue to make debanking certain clients into a (rational) business decision, rather than a discretionary one. My proposed solution, as we will cover, is to focus more on regulatory transparency and fairness, rather than zeroing in on the banks themselves. The EO does leave some wiggle room here, delegating more analysis to the Treasury.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Operation Chokepoint 2.0 can never happen again.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SenLummis\/status\/1953234884765597997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">August 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>So, while Sen. Lummis has already declared that Operation Chokepoint 2.0 will never happen again, Carter proposes solutions to abolish it completely, which haven\u2019t happened yet, according to him.<\/p>\n<p>Carter continues, saying \u201cbanks need to be able to close accounts rather than being stuck serving unprofitable or excessively risky clients.\u201d Carter\u2019s solution is rather forcing banks to be more transparent and accountable, so that clients would know, in a timely and precise manner, why they are being fired, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More than that, Carter calls for removing the \u201cconfidential supervisory information\u201d seal. Banks should be incentivized to stay accountable and transparent, he argues. Yet, the executive order leaves space for future politically motivated debanking disguised as operational debanking, as the decisions will be made by banks.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a sweeping move hailed by crypto advocates, President Trump signed an executive order barring federal agencies from pressuring banks to cut off entire industries\u2014a tactic critics dubbed \u201cOperation Chokepoint&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7344,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7343\/revisions\/7344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}