JPMorgan Chase’s move to sever ties with the CEO of Bitcoin payments firm Strike has reignited concerns over a resurgence of “debanking” in the U.S., a phenomenon that rattled the crypto sector during last year’s banking upheaval.
Strike CEO Jack Mallers revealed on X on Sunday that the banking giant had closed his personal accounts without providing a reason.
“Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase kicked me out of the bank,” Mallers wrote. “Whenever I asked why, their response was always the same: We aren’t allowed to tell you.”
The move has renewed worries about a so-called Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a term used by critics to describe alleged government pressure on banks to cut ties with cryptocurrency firms.
“Operation Chokepoint 2.0 regrettably persists,” U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis wrote on X Monday. She warned that actions like JPMorgan’s “erode trust in traditional banking” and risk driving the digital asset industry abroad, adding:
“It’s past time we put Operation Chokepoint 2.0 to rest to make America the digital asset capital of the world.”
Other crypto leaders, including Caitlin Long of Custodia Bank, warned that debanking pressures on the industry could continue until January 2026, pending the appointment of a new Federal Reserve governor.
“Trump won’t have the ability to appoint a new Fed governor until January. So, you can see the breadcrumbs leading up to a potentially big fight,” Long said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show on March 21.
Long noted that Custodia Bank had been repeatedly targeted by U.S. debanking efforts, costing the company months of work and “a couple of million dollars.”
The collapse of crypto-friendly banks in early 2023 triggered the first allegations of Operation Chokepoint 2.0, during which at least 30 technology and cryptocurrency founders reportedly faced denied access to banking services under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
In August 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at preventing banks from cutting off services to politically disfavored industries, including cryptocurrency.
Debanking concerns intensified in January when Senator Lummis’s office received a tip from an anonymous whistleblower alleging that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was “destroying material” related to Operation Chokepoint 2.0.
“The FDIC’s alleged efforts to destroy and conceal materials from the U.S. Senate related to Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is not only unacceptable, it is illegal,” Lummis wrote in a letter published on January 16, warning of “swift criminal referrals” if the misconduct is confirmed.
While traditional financial institutions have frequently criticized crypto firms for facilitating illicit activity, U.S. banks themselves have faced over $200 billion in fines for compliance failures over the past two decades, according to data from Better Markets and the Financial Times.
Bank of America reportedly accounted for about $82.9 billion of those penalties, while JPMorgan Chase paid more than $40 billion.
