JPMorgan Shuts Strike CEO’s Bank Accounts, Triggering Déjà Vu Over Crypto Debanking Era

Wall Street banking giant JPMorgan Chase abruptly closed bank accounts belonging to Strike CEO Jack Mallers in September, triggering déjà vu over the crypto debanking era.

“J.P. Morgan Chase threw me out of the bank,” Mallers said in a Nov. 23 post on X. “Every time I asked them why, they said the same thing: ‘We aren’t allowed to tell you.”’

He added that his dad “has been a private client there for 30+ years.” 

JPMorgan Says It Identified “Concerning Activity”

Mallers received a letter from the bank on Sept. 2 that said ”during the course of ongoing monitoring we identified concerning activity on your account.”

It added that under the Bank Secrecy Act and other regulations it has an obligation to periodically review its customer relationships and said it is committed to ”regulatory compliance and ensuring the security and integrity of the financial system.” 

Letter Mallers received from JPMorgan Chase (Source: X)

Mallers said that he has since framed the letter and is now banking with his own Strike, which is primarily a digital payments app that uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network for fast, low-cost transactions. 

Crypto Industry ‘Debanking’ Unlikely Under Trump

The banking industry has a history of restricting access to bank accounts for crypto firms, especially in the US.

During the Obama administration, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) introduced an initiative called Operation Chokepoint, which discouraged banks from doing business with industries that are deemed high-risk. 

During the more recent Biden administration, the digital asset industry faced ongoing issues with financial institutions, who were being pressured by federal banking regulators to deny services to crypto companies and executives. 

But US President Donald Trump has opted to embrace crypto, and is actively working on addressing the Operation Chokepoint initiatives from previous administrations.

Following Mallers’ post, Bo Hines, who previously headed Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets and now serves as a strategic advisor for Tether, asked Chase if ”you guys know Operation Choke Point is over.” 

In August, Trump signed an executive order titled “Guaranteeing Fair Banking For All Americans.” 

Its aim is to combat the practice of “politicized or unlawful debanking,” and tasks federal banking regulators with reviewing banks’ past or current policies and practices that may have required, encouraged, or influenced “debanking.” 

If any such policies are found, remedial action including fines, consent decrees, or other disciplinary measures can be taken against the institutions involved.  

Trump and his family have said that they were “debanked” by financial institutions for political reasons. Eric Trump, one of the President’s sons, said that “some of the biggest banks in the world” canceled accounts for him and his family members at the end of Trump’s first term, which drove them to embrace crypto.