Coinmetrics co-founder Nick Carter has claimed that the US government is using the banking sector to carry out a broad crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry.
Nic Carter said in a guest post on January 8th: pirate wire Crypto companies are finding it increasingly difficult to gain access to onshore banking systems due to unfriendly government regulations. Mr Carter said:
“Specifically, the Biden administration is currently implementing what appears to be a coordinated plan across multiple agencies to discourage banks from doing business with cryptocurrency companies.”
For context, anti-crypto lawmaker Elizabeth Warren reportedly issued a letter to Silvergate on Dec. 6, reprimanding the company for providing banking services to FTX.
Barely 24 hours later, the crypto-friendly signing bank notified customers that they would be closing their crypto accounts and refunding them. As a result, Binance announced that it will only process fiat transactions of $100,000 or more.
In a similar move, Metropolitan Commercial Bank announced a complete shutdown of its crypto-related services.
In addition, the Federal Reserve reportedly rejected Due to high risk, crypto bank Custodia has applied to become a member of the Federal Reserve.
From a policy perspective, the Fed, FDIC, and OCC should: Joint statement On January 3rd, we discussed the risks banks face when engaging with cryptocurrency companies. Banks were strongly discouraged from doing so, citing “safety and soundness” risks.
While authorities have not openly banned banks from trading with cryptocurrency customers, Carter said the strict policies and recent DOJ investigations into Silvergate have acted as a deterrent to other banks. rice field.
Carter further added that recent regulatory conflicts with crypto companies Operation Choke Point (OCO)In 2013, federal authorities used the OCO to pressure banks to close accounts of companies they ideologically opposed.
As a result, many poker companies and Payday lenders have found their bank accounts suspended with little explanation other than ‘regulatory pressure’.
Carter warned that if U.S. regulators do not rethink their pressure on banks, they risk losing more crypto businesses and U.S. investors to less sophisticated jurisdictions.