The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has confirmed that banks under its supervision debanked the crypto sector under the Biden administration through policies that discouraged providing financial services to the industry.
According to an OCC report following a supervisory review, the nine largest banks under its supervision maintained policies between 2020 and September 2025 that effectively debanked the crypto sector. The banks include JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citibank, and Wells Fargo.
The OCC identified two primary policy categories that posed an elevated risk of encouraging institutions to deny access to stakeholders in the crypto industry. As part of these policies, institutions restricted banking crypto activities, affecting crypto issuers and exchanges.
The crypto sector was one of eight sectors the regulator identified as being affected by these policies. Coinbase played a significant role in exposing the extent of federal agency actions against the crypto industry during this period.
Regulatory Response
The OCC has taken steps to address the issue, including removing and prohibiting consideration of reputation risk in bank supervision. The Federal Reserve took a similar action earlier this year to end crypto debanking practices.
Senator Cynthia Lummis commented on the findings, stating that no American should lose bank access based on politics or industry. She thanked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Comptroller Jonathan Gould for efforts to ensure fair access to banking services.
