Following recent actions by US authorities against the US crypto industry, Operation Choke Point 2.0 has become more apparent than ever. At the center of the campaign is the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which recently sent a Well Notice to Coinbase and brought forth a lawsuit against crypto mogul Justin Sun over fraud and other securities law violations.
Oversight of the SEC actions by the US Congress has been effectively non-existent so far. However, this is now set to change. In an interview with Punchbowl News, Patrick McHenry, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, disclosed that SEC chairman Gary Gensler will have to testify before the committee for the first time on April 18 to justify his actions.
The United States House Committee on Financial Services is the Committee of the House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including securities, banking, and crypto assets. Republican Patrick McHenry from North Carolina took office in 2023.
Shortly after, he established the Digital Assets Subcommittee in January 2023 to address the structural gap in the House Financial Services Committee’s handling of crypto issues. Representative French Hill (Republican) chairs the subcommittee, and representative Warren Davidson (Republican) is his deputy.
Both are known for their supportive stances on crypto. Davidson is one of Gensler’s biggest critics and recently posted a tweet calling for “Fire Gary” to become a bipartisan movement.
Let’s make the #FireGary movement bipartisan! https://t.co/0EVUeMxE9x
— Warren Davidson
(@WarrenDavidson) March 27, 2023
Committee Chairman McHenry wants to make oversight of the SEC a very important part of his chairmanship and said he wants to give Gensler more congressional oversight than he has had in the past. The hearing is intended to provide clarity on Gensler’s rulemaking and approach to crypto assets. McHenry said:
This will be our first oversight hearing of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will be about his rulemaking and his approach to digital assets. It will have a large general oversight over the SEC. In terms of policy, [this will be] a serious approach in terms of us laying down […] a regulatory sphere for digital assets.
McHenry also revealed that he will be looking closely at the issue of regulation for crypto assets in the coming months. “I’m glad that we were able to announce that and get that going. This will be the first of many regulatory hearings throughout the summer,” the chairman continued.
Operation Choke Point 2.0 On Crypto Is Real
That Operation Choke Point 2.0 is not a figment of the crypto community’s imagination is evidenced by a recent analysis published by the law firm Cooper & Kirk, which successfully sued the FDIC, OCC and Fed over the original operation Choke Point 1.0 in 2014.
In the report, the law firm explains how banking regulators are using the same unlawful threats and pressure tactics against the crypto industry in 2023 as they did back in 2014.
The law firm that litigated the original Operation Chokepoint case in 2014 just published a whitepaper explaining how the banking regulators are using the same unlawful threats and pressure tactics against the crypto industry in 2023.
This is a must read:https://t.co/Ko0lodmqZz
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) March 28, 2023
At press time, the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin was experiencing a renewed surge that saw the price rise above $28,000.
