Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, called Vice President Kamala Harris' “reset” on cryptocurrency a “scam” in a post on X on Friday amid the ongoing Federal Reserve crackdown. Winklevoss' post came a day after he criticized Harris for not attending a roundtable with cryptocurrency leaders on Aug. 8.
In his post, Winklevoss highlighted and criticized the Federal Reserve's enforcement action against crypto-friendly bank Customers Bank. The Federal Reserve issued a 13-page enforcement action against Customers Bank on Friday.
According to the enforcement action, Customers Bank must give 30 days' written notice to the Federal Reserve before entering into any new banking relationships with cryptocurrency companies.
Winklevoss writes:
“Today, the Fed confirmed that Operation Chokepoint 2.0 remains in full swing, provided valuable insight into how it works, and confirmed that the Harris cryptocurrency 'reset' is a scam.”
Because Customers Bank is one of the few crypto-friendly banks in the U.S., Winklevoss believes enforcement action would essentially create a bottleneck because it would put the Fed “directly as a gatekeeper between crypto companies and their ability to acquire new bank accounts.”
“This is not the proper function of principles-based regulation,” Winklevoss argued. Banks, he wrote, should have the autonomy to decide who they serve. That decision, he wrote, “should be decentralized across the banking industry.”
He added:
“Now, this decision is centralized at the Fed and will be made at the Fed's sole discretion. A choke point has been created.”
Winklevoss said the allegations were without evidence.
According to the enforcement action, the Fed “identified significant deficiencies with respect to the bank's risk management practices and compliance with applicable anti-money laundering (AML) laws, rules, and regulations.”
But Winklevoss called the charges “vague and vague” and “uncontroversial.” He said it was “completely unclear” why the Fed took enforcement action against Customers Bank.
Winklevoss further argued that the Fed's claims are not supported by evidence. He wrote:
“Yet no facts or concrete findings have been presented to support this assertion. The public must take the Fed's word for it. They tell them to trust us. How convenient.”
Moreover, Winklevoss believes there are sinister motives behind the Fed's enforcement actions: The Fed's “real concern and purpose,” he said, is to establish public evidence and ultimately control the decision-making process of its customers' banks.
He writes:
“The ultimate goal is to illegally control which companies and industries banks can and cannot lend to.”
Winklevoss also warned that the enforcement action was the Fed's “acting in good faith,” and that if Harris wins the November election, “there will be no mercy,” he wrote.
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