Austin Campbell, CEO of the global digital payments company WSPN, has called for "major consequences" and legal reforms if investigations reveal that federal efforts to debank the crypto industry were coordinated and intentional. Campbell made this statement in a post on X on January 20.
"The truth will come out," said Campbell. "Thus, it's hopefully going to be obvious if things were just well-intentioned but incredibly clunky (the good scenario) or actually impermissible and an attempt to censor or block an entire industry with behind-the-scenes machinations, in which case I personally believe there should be major consequences but also major legal reform, unless you think when the party you dislike gets into office they should be able to kill the industries you like the most by simply shutting down their ability to use money."
The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is under scrutiny for its alleged involvement in "Operation Chokepoint 2.0," where banks reportedly restricted access to individuals and companies in the crypto industry due to federal government pressure, as reported by Decrypt.
According to Yahoo Finance, more than 30 leaders from the crypto and tech sectors in the U.S. have claimed they were targeted in Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, discussed this issue on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. He noted that during the original Operation Chokepoint under the Obama administration, industries deemed "high-risk," such as payday lenders, were cut off from financial services. Sam Kazemian, founder of Frax Finance, said that in 2022 a representative from JPMorgan Chase informed him that they had been instructed to close accounts for clients whose primary source of wealth was crypto. Andrew Torba, founder of Gab, said multiple banks closed his accounts due to federal government pressure.
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis announced via a press release that a whistleblower contacted her with allegations that the FDIC was destroying documents related to its activities in the digital asset space. Lummis sent a letter to FDIC Chair Marty Gruenberg on January 16, urging FDIC staff to stop destroying materials to preserve them for "Congressional oversight in the coming months."
Campbell assumed his role as CEO of WSPN in October and is also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting.
