Welcome to “The Scoop” — the ultimate back-to-the-office water cooler cheat sheet, your go-to source for all things everyone really wants to know! Get the latest on everything from the political swamp maneuvering in D.C. and Hollywood drama to jaw-dropping small-town shenanigans from Paula Froelich. Subscribe to her newsletter here. For more of the latest dish and drama, subscribe to “The Scoop” on NewsNation’s YouTube.
(NewsNation) — President-elect Donald Trump is courting the tech community — and the tech community is loving it, and asking him to look into a few things on their behalf. Chief among their concerns are: Debanking, a term that is used when people have their bank accounts closed and are unable to open new ones, usually related to crypto investments or crypto accounts.
‘Democrats have weaponized debanking’: Source
My Washington sources said, “Debanking is going to be the word and issue of 2025. There will be Senate hearings about people being debanked and investigations on why people were debanked — and if it was vindictive on behalf of the current administration. Democrats have weaponized debanking in absurd ways.”
Marc Andreeson hinted at debanking
Uber tech lord Marc Andreeson hinted at the problem last week when he went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and said roughly 30 founders of crypto and other companies had been quietly debanked.
According to Axios, during the chat, Andreessen called the debanking efforts “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” and claimed it was a campaign against “their political enemies and then to their disfavored tech startups.”
Coinbase sued the FDIC over debanking
The people who were debanked were not named, but Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong noted on X: “Can confirm this is true.” Coinbase previously sued the FDIC for allegedly debanking crypto companies. As Axios noted: “In the waning days of the first Trump administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency advanced a rule that would have prevented banks from denying access to broad classes of people… Just after Biden took office, the OCC suspended that Fair Access Rule from moving forward.”