Committee on Financial Services Schedules Hearing To Probe Negative Effects of Operation Choke Point 2.0

The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has scheduled a hearing on “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” an alleged attempt by Biden Administration government regulators to stifle the crypto industry.

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal and Fred Thiel, the chief executive of crypto mining giant MARA, will speak at the hearing, which is slated for this Thursday, February 6th.

Other witnesses include Austin Campbell, an adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and Shayna Olesiuk, the director of banking policy at the non-profit Better Markets.

Grewal recently argued that documents secured by the exchange show that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was attempting to sabotage a wide variety of activity in the crypto industry. Coinbase filed Freedom of Information Act requests related to the FDIC’s letters to banks about crypto services.

Grewal says he’s seen clear evidence of a deliberate effort by the government to stifle the growth of crypto in the US.

Last month, U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) said that whistleblowers claimed that the FDIC was destroying materials linked to its digital asset activities in the final days of the Biden Administration.

The whistleblowers alleged that FDIC officials were closely monitoring access to the materials so they did not reach the Senate, according to Lummis. They also accused management of threatening some staff with legal action to prevent them from speaking out.

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