Senator Cynthia Lummis has characterized Operation Chokepoint 2.0 as "warfare on the American people," highlighting its impact on access to financial services. The statement was made on the social media platform X on December 15.

"Operation Chokepoint 2.0 is warfare on the American people," said Cythia Lummis, Senator for Wyoming.

According to CoinGeek, Chokepoint 2.0 is a term used by cryptocurrency advocates to describe what they perceive as a systematic effort by U.S. regulators to restrict banking access for crypto-related businesses. This term is derived from the original Operation Chokepoint, a 2013 initiative by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at limiting banking access for industries deemed high-risk, such as payday lenders.

Cynthia Lummis's X post on Chokepoint 2.0 | https://x.com/SenLummis/status/1868340242559926513

Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, has said that documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests revealed that Chokepoint 2.0 "wasn't just some crypto conspiracy theory." Grewal noted on December 6, 2024, that heavily redacted documents from March to October 2022 showed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) contacting financial institutions regarding "crypto-related" services.

Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, claimed that both he and Gemini were "debanked" due to their involvement in the crypto industry. Winklevoss asserted via a December 2024 social media post that this practice extended beyond individuals, stating, "They also assassinated several banks because they banked crypto companies." He described these actions as "totally unlawful" and suggested that the scope of debanking was likely much larger than the initially reported cases within the a16z portfolio.

According to Iowa State University, Senator Lummis represents Wyoming and was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 3, 2020. She previously served as Wyoming's representative in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2017. Born on September 10, 1954, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Lummis earned bachelor’s degrees in animal science and biology from the University of Wyoming and a law degree in 1985. Her political career began in 1979 when she became the youngest woman elected to the Wyoming Legislature.