 Pro-crypto lawyer John Deaton offers to probe Operation Chokepoint 2.0 
2025-01-05
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Former United States prosecutor and crypto advocate John Deaton has offered the incoming Trump administration to lead a probe into Operation Chokepoint 2.0 — an unconfirmed initiative that allegedly attempted to cut crypto companies from the traditional banking system.
“If these actions go unchallenged, it creates a dangerous precedent where regulatory bodies can quietly suppress entire industries they disfavor, stifling innovation, competition, and economic opportunity,” Deaton said in a Jan. 4 X post addressed to incoming United States President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Department of Government Efficiency leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
“This isn’t just a fight for crypto, it’s a fight against the erosion of institutional integrity and the unchecked power of unelected bureaucrats,” Deaton said in the X post, which was also addressed to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik and David Sacks, who will lead Trump’s AI and crypto “czar.”
Deaton, well-known for his efforts in Ripple’s legal battle with the US securities regulator, said he would even “accept the task without salary.”
His offer followed a court order allowing crypto exchange Coinbase to obtain unredacted files from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to investigate their role in the unconfirmed Operation Chokepoint. 2.0 regime.
“They show a coordinated effort to stop a wide variety of crypto activity — everything from basic BTC transactions to more complex offerings,” Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal explained after reviewing the filings.
The alleged “architect” of Operation Chokepoint 2.0, Martin Gruenberg, resigned as the FDIC Chair in November.
The regime refers to a rumored and unconfirmed US government initiative to pressure banks into refusing or limiting services to crypto firms, which possibly caused crypto exchanges like Binance to be without a local banking partner after Silvergate and Signature Bank both collapsed in March 2023.
Deaton’s new endeavor comes after he lost a Massachusetts Senate seat to Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren in the US election on Nov. 5.
The landslide victory in Warren’s favor came before two heated senate debates where Deaton called out Warren for building an “anti-crypto army” instead of prioritizing issues impacting the lower and middle class in the state.