Did bureaucrats in the US plot to cut the crypto industry out of the banking system? An investigation begins.

Last spring, Austin Federa was eyeing up a new property in Brooklyn, New York. After passing an initial round of vetting for a mortgage with HSBC, he put in an offer, eager to avoid getting beaten to the punch. But then the bank began to ask about his job.

Federa worked as head of strategy at the Solana Foundation, a non-profit in the cryptocurrency industry, he told HSBC. That didn’t go down well: After repeated delays and back-and-forth, the bank said it would grant the mortgage only if Federa left his job, he claims.

Federa was dumbstruck: “The guy explicitly told me: ‘It’s because of crypto,’” he claims. “How could I be a more attractive person to lend to as someone who is unemployed?” HSBC did not respond to a request for comment.

...read more at wired.com