Crypto, Trump, the leadership of the Republican Party is turned on in the FDIC on the debate

The CEO of Anchorage Digital, Nathan McCauley, wants everyone to know what happened to his cryptographic company in 2023 during the Biden administration.

“Our story is quite ridiculous,” McCauley told CNBC in an interview after testifying in a Senate audienceentitled “Investigating the real impacts of the debate in the United States”, earlier this month. “We had a bank with which we had a growing relationship for several years, which basically in a penny, decided to turn off our bank account.”

Without explanation. No warning. After two years working with the bank, the access was cut. He did not appoint the bank and a spokesman for Anchorage said the company is decreasing to provide it.

McCauley’s pairs throughout the cryptographic industry have shared similar sagas about being closed from the United States financial system, losing access to payroll, current accounts and payment processing. Industry leaders call it “Operation Choke Point 2.0”, An alleged coordinated effort by regulators during the presidency of Biden to press banks to separate ties with cryptography. Version 1.0, they say, occurred when the Obama administration chased the banks that supported arms manufacturers and the lenders of the day of payment.

With the word “debate”, cryptographic executives and investors have found immediate allies among the main Republicans in both cameras of Congress and in the White House, which are ready and willing to investigate any potential embezzlement that occurred when the Democrats were in charge.

President Donald Trump He has co -opted the agenda for political benefit. In the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month, he accused JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America Of politically motivated debate, claiming that the main financial institutions have excluded conservatives under the pressure of regulators. The banks denied the claim and Trump has not provided any evidence to support it.

Senator Rick Scott (R-fla.) It has been closely linked to Trump and, as president of the Senate Banking Committee, used its Opening observations at the hearing of February 5, to echo the feeling of the president.

“It is incredibly alarming and discouraging to listen to stories about financial institutions that cut services to digital assets, political figures and companies and conservative aligned,” Scott said.

For cryptographic industry leaders such as McCauley, republican leadership in Washington has provided a platform to publicly transmit their complaints.

McCauley, whose company is a cryptographic bank chartered by the federal government, reported the abrupt loss of banking services in Anchorage in June 2023. He said that although his company has faced numerous challenges, the environment has been even worse for less established startups .

“You can only imagine what was happening to the smallest entrepreneurs who did not have the resources to be able to organize to keep their bank accounts open,” McCauley told CNBC.

In his testimony For the Scott Committee, McCauley said that after losing access to their banking services, Anchorage had to fire 20% of her workforce, including 70 US employees. To this day, customers cannot “send wire transfers to third parties,” he said.

High profile audiences so early in Trump’s second administration underline the sudden influence of the cryptographic industry, which was instrumental to obtain Its favored candidates chosen throughout the country in November.

Cryptographic exchange Coinbase was One of the main corporate donors In the 2024 electoral cycle, giving more than $ 75 million to a group called Fireshake and their PAC Affiliates, including a Fresh freshness of $ 25 million To support the Pro-Crypto Super Pac in the intermediate works of 2026. Ripple hurt around $ 50 million.

Coinbase and Ripple were involved in prolonged legal battles with the SEC under the former president Gary Genseses.

His executive order in crypto It promises “fair and open access” to financial services. And Trump appointed the capitalist of risk, David Sacks, a life of a lifetime of ELON ALMIZCLEas the first AI and the Cryptographic Tsar of the White House.

Meanwhile, the SEC has already indicated a reversal of the rules that previously prevent banks from having to retain Bitcoin In their balances, and the FDIC is under pressure to review the guidelines that make banks serve to digital asset companies.

The legal director of Coinbase, Paul Grewal, testified to the Chamber Financial Services Committee on February 6, along with Fred Thiel, CEO of Bitcoin Miner Mara Holdings. In an audience entitled “Operation Choke Point 2.0: The Biden administration efforts to put cryptography in the sights“They described the aggressive pressure of US regulators to effectively push banks to cut ties with cryptographic companies.

“No one wants to see anyone denied basic banking services based on their political views or if they work in an industry that could be in disgrace with the current administration,” Grewal told CNBC. “There are concerns throughout the political hall and throughout the Congress that banking services have been armed in the past to cross those who may be out of favor.”

The Fdic last week launched Hundreds of internal record pages obtained through requests from the Law on Freedom of Information (FOIA). The documents show that the regulator sent “pause letters”, urging banks to rethink their relationships with cryptographic customers.

Nic Carter, founder of Castle Island Ventures, has It spent months Chronic revelations in the investigation of the strangulation point. He said that the FDIC records show that banks were being pressed to avoid cryptographic clients even in the absence of clear laws.

“Ultimately, the smoking gun is communication between regulators and banks themselves,” Carter said

As part of his investigation, the Chamber Committee is investigating the claims that bank executives and financial regulators secretly in secret cryptographic signatures.

Thiel, in his testimonyHe said that “discriminatory banking and financial policies threaten the digital asset ecosystem” and that “banks and payment processors are effectively deciding which industries can exist and grow within the economy of the United States.”

Among the incidents of the strangulation point that most caught the anger of cryptographic investors were the Forced closures of Silvergate Bank and Signature bank In 2023, following the meltdown In the FTX by Sam Bankman Fried months before. Silvergate and Signature were the main banks insured by the FIC for cryptographic companies.

Silvergate Capital, the Bank’s father, acknowledged in his Banking presentation Last year there had been a “rapid contraction” of the IT business in early 2023, but said it had “stabilized” and could “meet regulatory capital requirements” and “had the ability to continue attending to its clients “

Silivengate attributed his insolvency to “greater supervision pressure on Silvergate and other banks focused on serving cryptographic asset businesses.”

Signature bank He was seized by the regulators in March 2023. Former Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, a member of the Board of Firm, reclaimed that the FDIC closed it specifically “to send a very strong anti -religion message.” The FICD organized a sale of signature assets, excluding $ 4 billion in cryptography related deposits.

Mike Lempres, who was president of Silvergate and previously spent two years as Legal Chief of Coinbase, wrote in a opinion piece In the Wall Street Journal this week that “the federal government is finally changing the course after four years of vilipendiar cryptocurrencies and use legally doubtful policies to force companies to bend their will.”

While the cryptographic industry in general is gathering around that message, many in Congress focus on presenting the case that banks were pointing to conservatives for their political views. Carter said legislators are trying to reach a broader audience because “most regular people do not care cryptography.”

“I think this was a political choice taken by people in Congress and the administration that goes after Debanking, it was also adding conservative things,” Carter said. “So it became a problem with a much broader attraction.”

For Trump, there is more to win of cryptography than only political points. Potentially there is a lot of money involved.

Before he was in office, Trump and the first lady Melania Trump had already Meme coins launched That instantly added billions of dollars in paper value to the net assets of the family, in addition to the tens of millions of dollars that the projects obtained in commercial rates.

A week in its term Trump launched the truth.A financial arm of Trump Media, ETF promising, cryptocurrency investments and assets of “patriot economy”, all guarded with $ 250 million in Charles Schwab.

Meanwhile, Musk is in the center of the Trump administration and has its own project underway. It is positioning its social media platform X as an alternative online bank, Enabling Users to move funds between traditional bank accounts and their digital wallets to make instant payments between peers.

Good vibrations are expressed throughout the industry.

“It’s a new day for Crypt in the United States,” said David Marcus, former chipo chief Goal and the current CEO of the LightsPark infrastructure startup, in an interview with “Squawk Box” by CNBC last week. What is happening under Trump, he said, is “a great polarity of the atmosphere and energy for our entire industry.”

LOOK: CEO of LighttsPark David Marcus in the New Age for Crypto