A congressional committee is investigating what’s behind the recent trend of major financial institutions closing accounts linked to cryptocurrency firms.
The inquiry from the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., follows mounting concerns from the crypto community about the closure of accounts at banks that consider the sector too risky.
In a letter sent Friday to venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and five prominent crypto CEOs — including Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong and Uniswap Labs’ Hayden Adams — Comer asked for details about their experiences with account closures.
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The letter also referenced “Operation Choke Point,” an initiative created under the Obama administration designed to deter financial fraud. Critics, however, say the effort included language hidden within its provisions that may have provided banks and other businesses with the opportunity to financially disenfranchise conservative Christian organizations by leveraging their own “risk tolerance” policies in order to “box out disfavored but legal business operations.”
The investigation follows claims by Andreessen, who appeared on “The Joe Rogan Experience” last November and alleged that 30 tech founders he knew had been subjected to debanking, a practice where banks abruptly close accounts without providing clear explanations.
The letter also referenced an incident involving first lady Melania Trump, who, in a recent memoir, revealed she and her son Barron were personally impacted by the debanking trend.
An excerpt of Ms. Trump’s memoir quoted in Comer’s letter read in part: “I was shocked and dismayed to learn that my long-time bank decided to terminate my account and deny my son, [Barron Trump,] the opportunity to open a new one. This decision appeared to be rooted in political discrimination, raising serious concerns about civil rights violations.”
In response, Comer said the panel is working to determine “whether this debanking practice originates from the financial institutions themselves or from either implicit or explicit pressure from government regulators.”
One of the key figures involved in the investigation, Adams, had previously revealed that JPMorgan Chase had closed his Uniswap Labs bank accounts in 2022 without warning. He expressed frustration over how many other crypto companies face similar challenges.
In 2022, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith reported issues related to debanking. More recently, Coinbase’s legal officer, Paul Grewal, accused the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) of pressuring financial institutions to sever ties with crypto firms.
While the allegations of debanking have long been a contentious issue, it gained new attention last week when former President Donald Trump criticized major financial institutions for allegedly refusing to do business with conservatives.
Trump, speaking at the World Economic Forum, singled out Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, claiming that many conservatives had been unfairly denied banking services.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives, because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business,” Trump said. “What you’re doing is wrong.”
Sam Brownback, the former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, welcomed Trump’s public rebuke.
“I’m delighted,” Brownback, who also served as a U.S. senator and governor of Kansas before assuming the ambassador position in Trump’s first administration, told The Christian Post last week. “This thing has been swept under the carpet for way too long, and to get it finally out in the open is an important step to getting it solved.”
The bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a nonpartisan, multi-faith nonprofit Brownback launched in 2022, was shuttered by JPMorgan Chase without explanation less than three weeks after it was opened that year.
Brownback alleged that JPMorgan Chase stonewalled their executive director when he asked the bank why the account had been closed.
The bank denied closing the account based on the group’s political or religious views at the time.
