The Biden Administration sought to make it nearly impossible to engage in digital asset-related activities. To do so, it utilized a regulatory regime that provided too little certainty tofinancial institutions and gave too much discretion to the regulators that oversee them.Regulators used this discretion to exert substantial pressure on financial institutions—oftenthrough informal guidance, such as interagency statements or interpretive letters—to discouragethese entities from engaging in digital asset-related activities. In addition to informal guidance,regulators weaponized enforcement actions to achieve an anti-digital asset agenda.

• Biden administration regulators reinvented the Obama administration regulators' operation choke point 1.0 playbook.
• The Biden administration engaged in a coordinated attack against the digital asset ecosystem
• Operation Choke Point 2.0 stifled innovation in the United States
• Committee Republicans have worked to shine a light on Operation Choke Point 2.0
• The Trump Administration is working to end Operation Choke Point 2.0

Lack of regulatory clarity, uncertain access to financial services, and rampant, ex-statutory enforcement activity against the digital asset ecosystem created a broad chilling effectacross the banking industry that resulted in the debanking of at least 30 entities and individualsengaging in digital asset-related activities. As a result, the Biden Administration stifledblockchain innovation, strained financial institutions, and denied Americans and Americanbusinesses access to the U.S. banking system. Digital asset founders and entrepreneurs wereforced to divert focus from operations and the development of new products and services.