Strike CEO Jack Mallers says JPMorgan Chase abruptly terminated his personal bank accounts in September without offering any explanation, a move that has revived industry fears over politically motivated “debanking” of crypto executives.
Key Takeaways:
Strike CEO Jack Mallers says JPMorgan closed his accounts without explanation. Chase cited unspecified “concerning activity” under the Bank Secrecy Act. The incident has reignited debate over “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”“Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase threw me out of the bank. It was bizarre. My dad has been a private client there for 30+ years. Every time I asked them why, they said the same thing: ‘We aren’t allowed to tell you,’” Mallers wrote on X.
Chase Cites “Concerning Activity” in Strike CEO Account Closure
He shared a letter from the bank citing unspecified “concerning activity” detected during routine monitoring.
The notice pointed to obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act and warned the bank “may not be able to open new accounts” for him in the future.
The incident comes just weeks after former President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting financial institutions from debanking individuals or companies solely for engaging in crypto-related activity.
JPMorgan’s actions have led some industry figures to question whether what many dubbed “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” an alleged Biden-era effort to isolate crypto firms from the banking system — has actually ended.
Bo Hines, formerly head of Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets and now a strategic advisor to Tether, was quick to criticize the bank.
“Hey Chase… you guys know Operation Choke Point is over, right? Just checking,” he wrote on X.
Mallers has a history of public clashes with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has frequently criticized Bitcoin.
In a Yahoo Finance interview last year, Mallers brushed off Dimon’s comments, saying, “What do I think about Jeffrey Epstein’s banker being concerned that a distributed, decentralized, open public money could potentially be used for bad things, sitting on a ski resort in Davos? I don’t really care.”
For years, crypto companies have alleged informal pressure from US regulators pushing banks to avoid digital-asset clients, a claim the Biden administration has denied.
The term Operation Chokepoint 2.0 references the Obama-era Department of Justice initiative that pushed banks to restrict services to “high-risk” industries such as payday lenders and firearms dealers.
Banks Cite Risk, AML Rules in Defense
This issue of “de-banking” has been a longstanding complaint among conservative groups, which argue that their accounts and donations are often restricted or terminated without clear justification.
Crypto firms have also raised alarm over what they see as unofficial pressure from regulators that has pushed banks to quietly cut ties with blockchain startups, particularly since the collapse of crypto-friendly institutions like Silvergate and Signature Bank.
Banks, meanwhile, have defended these decisions as risk-based, citing compliance with anti-money-laundering regulations and federal scrutiny of emerging sectors like digital assets.
They have pointed to existing regulatory frameworks that make onboarding crypto clients especially difficult, with heightened know-your-customer and transaction monitoring expectations.
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