US Banking Regulator Report Links Debanking to Crypto, Oil, Gas and Firearms Ties

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has published a report on debanking, naming digital assets among the activities that led some banks to limit financial services. It found that certain banks kept public and nonpublic policies restricting service to several industries, among them oil and gas, tobacco, firearms and crypto. The review was done under an August 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at stopping what he called unlawful debanking.

On crypto specifically, the agency said many institutions restricted work with issuers, exchanges and administrators, often pointing to financial crime concerns. Still, the 47-page document gave no specific examples of crypto related debanking.

Limits of the Review and Gould’s Focus on Coal

The regulator said it could not measure the full scale of debanking or alleged debanking after looking at nine major banks. Comptroller Jonathan Gould spent most of his remarks on coal and firearms, saying those decisions were not driven by financial risk. In his words, banks were worried about bad headlines, protests and reputational fallout from backing the industry.

Background on Operation Chokepoint 2.0

In November 2024, more than 30 tech and crypto executives said they had been refused banking access. Parts of the industry nicknamed the alleged effort Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a reference to the Obama era initiative against fraud and money laundering through banks. Trump’s 2025 order followed claims that the Biden administration may have pushed financial institutions to cut crypto firms off from services.