Due to the limited disclosure of the FDIC’s participation in Operation Chokepoint 2.0, an organized de-banking movement against the crypto industry, Coinbase is intensifying its investigation, calling for official sworn statements instead of a more detailed document release.
Coinbase Switches Gears in Probe of FDIC's Involvement in Operation Chokepoint 2.0
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Coinbase Gearing for FDIC’s Sworn Testimony in Operation Chokepoint 2.0 Probe
Coinbase has gone on the offensive against U.S. agencies that allegedly took action to keep cryptocurrency industry actors away from banking institutions. Paul Grewal, chief legal officer of Coinbase, explained that they are now scaling their discovery efforts to investigate the level of involvement of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a Biden administration campaign to de-bank crypto institutions and actors.
Read more: Whistleblowers Expose FDIC Operation Chokepoint 2.0 Coverup and Disinformation Campaign
On social media, Grewal explained that the exchange had decided to escalate its actions in this case due to the corporation’s resistance to provide proof that it had conducted due diligence in avoiding the destruction of documents linked to this matter.
Grewal claimed that the FDIC has failed to address these concerns, only disclosing snippets that “have little to nothing to do” with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and how the corporation handles them.
Fifty-three pages of documents have been delivered fully redacted. Grewal suspects resistance from the corporation’s leadership regarding full disclosure of its involvement in Operation Chokepoint 2.0. Other pages have heavy redactions, making it difficult to ascertain their content.
“Enough is enough. In our latest status report to the Court, we lay out why we need sworn testimony now,” Grewal stressed, linking to the full status report asking to escalate the request.
This is the latest of Coinbase’s steps to bring transparency to the previous administration’s actions against the crypto industry. Coinbase was a slow part of this, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused it of selling unregistered securities in a recently dropped case.
Previously, Grewal revealed that the exchange had launched a probe to determine the cost of the U.S. government’s war on crypto under the Biden Administration. To this end, the exchange issued a FOIA request to the SEC to estimate how much money was spent on legal actions against crypto businesses.
Read more: Coinbase Launches Inquiry Into Costs of SEC’s War on Crypto
