When the annals of 21st-century finance are written, there will be a special chapter (messy, political, and deeply consequential) dedicated to the saga of “debanking.”

For much of the last three years, anyone working in crypto, from lean web3 startups to regulated banks and exchanges like Custodia Bank or Kraken, knew very well what it meant to be suddenly shut out of the U.S. financial system. Sometimes, silent signals or vague “high risk” assessments were enough. Other times, no explanation was given at all.

According to data released by AIMA in December 2024, fully 98% of crypto-focused hedge funds facing bank account termination were never given a clear justification.

Dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” this modern crackdown paralleled an earlier government push targeting politically disfavored industries. This time, thousands of crypto companies and their partners (including hedge funds and payments businesses) saw their bank accounts terminated. They found themselves stonewalled by risk officers or hamstrung by compliance teams afraid of regulatory backlash.​

And just as the very word “debanked” became a kind of rallying cry, President Trump, whose own family suffered from financial weaponization to which one federal regulator has even officially admitted, took swift and dramatic action. On August 7, 2025, a major executive order declared that regulators could no longer pressure banks to cut ties with lawful businesses. It was a long-awaited intervention with implications still rippling through back offices and bank boardrooms.​

But two months on, what progress has actually been made since that orde

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Author: Christina Comben