Sen. Elizabeth Warren Shifts Stance on Crypto, Supports Ending Debanking
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a well-known critic of cryptocurrency, announced on Wednesday that she intends to collaborate with President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans to end the practice of debanking. This marked a notable shift in her stance on crypto during a Senate hearing focused on allegations that major banks have consistently denied services to crypto industry leaders.
“Debanking is a real problem,” Sen. Warren, who chairs the influential Senate Banking Committee, stated during the hearing. “This shouldn’t be happening, and we need to figure out why, and who is responsible.”
This change in tone may have surprised many in the crypto community, who have long viewed Sen. Warren as a formidable adversary. Some crypto leaders, including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, have even accused her of spearheading “Operation Chokepoint 2.0,” an alleged initiative under the Biden administration to pressure banks into avoiding crypto clients.
Yet, during Wednesday’s Senate Banking hearing, Sen. Warren unexpectedly expressed support for crypto industry witnesses who had been denied banking services, saying, “I don’t think for a second you should be locked out of our banking system,” addressing Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital, a crypto infrastructure firm.
Warren’s shift in rhetoric could be driven by her own political interests. Throughout the hearing, she highlighted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal agency she helped create in 2011, as the primary institution tasked with safeguarding consumers against debanking practices.
Following Trump’s recent move to defund the CFPB, Sen. Warren argued, “If the president is serious about stopping debanking, then he needs a strong CFPB as his partner to get this done.”
Warren also used the hearing to broaden the scope of debanking, suggesting that other groups—such as nonprofits, the cannabis industry, ex-felons, and Muslim Americans—were also being targeted.
Crypto leaders seemed taken aback by her questions, which appeared to align with their interests. For instance, she inquired whether they would support stronger regulations to prevent banks from denying services to customers based on their affiliation with crypto.
However, when Sen. Warren pressed Anchorage Digital’s CEO to name the specific banks that had denied him services due to his crypto connections, McCauley hesitated. He stated that it’s not productive to name individual banks as the banks were the victims here.
