The Senate Banking Committee has posted its list of witnesses for next week’s hearing on the Debanking that took place during the Biden Administration. The following individuals will be sharing their experiences in regard to losing access to the banking system:
- Nathan McCauley, CEO & Co-Founder, Anchorage Digital
- Evan Hafer, Founder and Executive Chairman, Black Rifle Coffee Company
- Stephen Gannon, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Anchorage Digital is a federally chartered digital bank that serves the digital asset industry. It is the only financial institution of its kind. The “crypto-native bank” provides services to institutions, including custody, settlement, trading, and staking.
In 2023, it was reported that Anchorage Digital was debanked because they are “in the business of crypto.” This occurred even thought Anchorage holds a banking charter. McCauley stated at that time:
“We were debanked in June of 2023 after the January 2023 guidance from the banking regulators – the Fed, FDIC, and OCC. Our bank actually did tell us they were debanking us because we were in the business of crypto. That was particularly surprising because we ourselves are a national bank.”
Black Rifle Coffee, a known conservative-leaning business, was apparently targeted by the FDIC because they had “Black Rifle” in their name.
Wright has written about the phenomenon of debanking, saying he expects the Trump Administration to address debanking, “a regulatory practice that has vexed the digital asset industry—and banking in general—over the last several years.” He describes debanking as the “latest variation of regulators using vague and amorphous standards to supervise bank conduct through the subjective lens of what the federal banking agencies call reputational risk.”
Typically, a bank will shutter an account after a regulator warns certain activities may lead to greater scrutiny.
With the change in administration, there is an expectation that removing access to the banking system for politically perspective or certain legal activities will come to an end.
The debanking hearing will occur on February 5, 2026, at 10 AM ET. The hearing will be live-streamed on the Committee’s website.