Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is investigating allegations that cryptocurrency firms were subjected to debanking, when a bank closes an account believed to pose financial risk with little notice, under the Biden administration.
Comer sent a letter to at least six industry leaders, including Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith, Uniswap Labs CEO Hayden Adams, Lightspark CEO David Marcus, and Payward CEO Dave Ripley, to corroborate their experiences with debanking.
“The Committee seeks to ensure that entrepreneurs are not unfairly targeted and, by extension, that all Americans are able to participate in U.S. markets without fear of retaliation through illicit measures undertaken by financial institutions or federal regulators,” Comer wrote.
Just in November, Andreessen appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience and said he knew of at least 30 cryptocurrency banks losing access to their accounts during the Biden administration.
In 2022, Adams, the creator of the decentralized cryptocurrency Uniswap, revealed on X that JPMorgan Chase closed his bank accounts with “no notice or explanation.”
“I know many individuals and companies who have been similarly targeted simply for working in the crypto industry,” Adams tweeted at the time. “Thanks for making it personal.”
Former President Joe Biden and the Securities and Exchange Commission have not been friendly toward the cryptocurrency industry, with cryptocurrency leaders accusing the administration of taking part in “Operation Choke Point 2.0” to block the adoption of cryptocurrency in the United States. Correspondence between the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and several member banks revealed that there is evidence that the accusation carries weight.
Leaders in the industry, like Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, a crypto lobbying group, are excited to work with Comer on his 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,” Smith 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.”
Comer’s letter comes following accusations weighed by President Donald Trump against Bank of American and JPMorgan Chase of debanking conservatives at the World Economic Forum on Thursday.
“I hope you start opening your bank to conservatives because many conservatives complain that the banks are not allowing them to do business within the bank, and that included a place called Bank of America,” Trump said to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. “They don’t take conservative business,” the president continued. “And I don’t know if the regulators mandated that because of Biden or what. But you and [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie [Dimon] and everybody, I hope you’re going to open your banks to conservatives because what you’re doing is wrong.”
In response, Dimon said the company was just trying to follow the law.
“There should be far cleaner lines about what we have to do, and what we don’t have to do,” Dimon said on the bank’s The Unshakeables podcast. “We’ve been complaining about this for years. We need to fix it.”
On Friday Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) echoed Trump’s and Comer’s concerns of debanking on X.
“We’ve heard it in technology,” Scott said in a video. “We’ve heard it in business. Now we’re hearing it in one of the most important areas of our economy and the banking system. We need access for every single American citizen, every single legal American business debanking stops now.”
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Scott announced the Senate Banking Committee will be holding a hearing, which will include the testimony of people who have been debanked.
Meanwhile, unlike Biden, Trump has embraced the cryptocurrency agency, signing an executive order to create a group that will advise on how the federal government should navigate cryptocurrency and blockchain technology as well as an effort to create a national digital asset stockpile.
