Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, examining whether banks unlawfully terminated customer accounts for political reasons. The probe directly validates the crypto industry’s Operation Chokepoint 2.0 grievances.
Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo as part of a probe into whether the banks unlawfully terminated customer accounts for political reasons, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., headed by Jeanine Pirro, issued the subpoenas, some dating back to last year, seeking lists of debanked individuals and the banks’ explanations for the closures. Prosecutors are examining whether the terminations violated the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, a statute traditionally used to prosecute bank-related fraud. Bloomberg also reported the probe Wednesday.
For the crypto industry, the investigation amounts to a formal government inquiry into what advocates have long called Operation Chokepoint 2.0: a pattern of account closures at major banks during 2022 and 2023 that digital-asset executives said targeted them for their involvement in crypto.
The Chokepoint 2.0 Record
The phrase Operation Chokepoint 2.0 borrows from the original Operation Choke Point, a 2013 Obama-era DOJ program that pressured banks to cut ties with industries officials considered high-risk. Crypto executives applied the label to what they described as a coordinated effort to restrict banking access to digital-asset firms during the Biden administration.
FDIC documents obtained by Coinbase through a Freedom of Information Act request showed agency staff advising banks to avoid or limit crypto client relationships starting in 2022. A 2023 House Financial Services Committee report identified at least 30 entities cut off through informal regulatory guidance and supervisory pressure.
Among those who documented closures: Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said JPMorgan closed his personal accounts in January 2022 with no explanation. Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said Citigroup shut his company and personal accounts in late 2022. Frax Finance founder Sam Kazemian said JPMorgan staff told him in December 2022 that the bank was closing accounts of anyone whose primary income was crypto.
Where the Probe Stands
JPMorgan and Bank of America each confirmed earlier related probes in regulatory filings. JPMorgan disclosed in its November 2025 quarterly filing that it was facing “reviews, investigations and legal proceedings” tied to Trump’s August 2025 executive order on debanking. The bank said its code of conduct prohibits closing accounts for political or religious reasons and expressed support for the administration’s access-to-finance efforts. Bank of America made a similar disclosure around the same time.
Pirro’s office opened its investigations independently, the WSJ reported. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had not sent referrals to the DOJ; prosecutors pursued the inquiry without a regulatory handoff.
The subpoenas extend a broader campaign that began with Trump’s August 2025 executive order directing regulators to review banks’ policies for political or religious discrimination. The OCC responded in September, requesting debanking data from the nine largest banks it supervises. The Small Business Administration sent similar directives to more than 5,000 banks.
Compliance Exposure for Institutional Crypto
Banks now face simultaneous pressure from the executive branch to document their account-closure practices and legal exposure if those records reveal a discriminatory pattern. For institutional crypto firms, the probe adds a new layer of uncertainty to banking relationships they spent 2024 and 2025 rebuilding after the 2022-2023 wave of closures.
Firms that rely on traditional bank rails for treasury operations, client fund custody or payment processing watch a DOJ finding of illegal debanking as a determination that past disruptions were unlawful, not discretionary business decisions.
The regulatory backdrop has shifted. Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve, OCC and FDIC jointly removed “reputation risk” language from interagency supervisory guidance, eliminating a primary supervisory hook banks used to justify restricting crypto clients. Custodia Bank, a Wyoming-chartered digital-asset lender whose application for a Federal Reserve master account was denied, filed a petition with the Supreme Court in May seeking review, with a full-filing deadline extended to July 11.
Whether the DOJ subpoenas lead to charges, settlements or consent orders will determine how much enforcement force backs the administration’s debanking reform effort. No bank has been charged and the DOJ’s office has made no public statement on the probe’s scope or timeline.
