Four United States Republican senators led by Bill Hagerty have written a letter to the heads of federal banking regulatory agencies, questioning the ideological motivation behind recent regulatory moves in regard to cryptocurrency. They compared the regulators’ policies to the Obama administration’s Operation Choke Point.
The senators addressed Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chair Marty Gruenberg and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu. The March 9 letter said that their agencies, along with the White House, have issued statements on heightened supervision that have resulted in unfortunate consequences for the cryptocurrency sector, such as the closing of crypto firms’ bank accounts.