Comer Investigates FDIC’s Potentially Politically Motivated Attempts to Suppress Crypto-Related Activity

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is looking into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) potentially politically motivated approach to overseeing cryptocurrency-related activities within the banking industry. According to the new Acting Chairman of the FDIC, the agency’s efforts to monitor cryptocurrency under the Biden Administration were rife with delays and often discouraged banks from pursuing crypto-related endeavors. Recent reports also indicate that numerous individuals and businesses may have been unlawfully debanked during the Biden Administration because of their interest in the cryptocurrency space. This week, Chairman Comer is requesting access to unredacted documents that will shed light on why the FDIC asked banks to pause crypto-related activities.

“On February 5, 2025, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which oversees the banking industry, released a document containing voluminous redacted correspondence between the agency and financial institutions that sought to engage, or did engage, in ‘crypto-related activities.’  According to the FDIC, 64 of these documents include ‘correspondence with the 24 banks that received ‘pause letters’’ and 111 documents consist of FDIC correspondence and records pertaining to crypto-related activities of other regulated institutions. The Committee requests unredacted versions of the aforementioned document and other previously released pause letters to better understand the relationship between relevant financial institutions and government regulators and their respective approaches to crypto-related activities,” wrote Chairman Comer.

Earlier this year, Chairman Comer opened an investigation into the potential debanking of lawful American businesses and individuals, including First Lady Melania Trump. He wrote letters to several tech leaders within the cryptocurrency space asking them to share their debanking stories with the Oversight Committee. This investigation, in coordination with Chairman Comer’s new letter to the FDIC, seeks to determine whether the decision to pursue crypto-related activities, as well as general debanking practices, originates from activists within financial institutions or from pressure by the federal government to debank certain industries and Americans.

“You have expressed concern that the FDIC’s approach during the Biden Administration to digital assets such as crypto and blockchain ‘contributed to a general perception that the agency was closed for business if institutions are interested in anything related to blockchain or distributed ledger technology,’” continued Chairman Comer. “The Committee is concerned that overreach by government regulators may have arbitrarily suppressed industries they deemed unfavorable, impacting business operations by preventing entities from accessing cash to fulfill payroll or driving technological and financial innovation overseas.”

Read the letter to FDIC Acting Chairman Travis Hill here.

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