Arkansas Republican French Hill Vows to ‘Fully Investigate Operation Choke Point 2.0’

Rep. French Hill (R) of Arkansas who currently serves as vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and as chairman of the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion, has pledged to “fully investigate” the alleged government effort to debank the crypto industry – dubbed “Operation Choke Point 2.0.”

“There should be no place for politicized debanking of legal businesses in the American financial ,” Hill wrote in a post on X. “I plan to fully investigate ‘Operation Choke Point 2.0’, as outlined in my plan to make community banking great again.”

The congressman was responding to an earlier post by X owner Elon Musk who wrote that “30 tech founders were secretly debanked.”

Hill, a former bank CEO who is now vying for the House Financial Services Committee chairman role, unveiled his plan to revamp banking regulation in November, with a specific focus on smaller community banks.

“As a former founder, chair and CEO of a community bank, I have a plan to make community banking great again in this country,” Hill said in a November press release.

The topic of crypto debanking was thrust into the limelight after a recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, where famed startup investor Marc Andreesen, general partner at venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, accused government agencies of conspiring to shut crypto founders out of traditional banking s.

“This started fifteen years ago with something called Operation Choke Point,” Andreesen said on the podcast. “This administration extended that concept to apply it to tech founders, crypto founders, and then just generally, political opponents.”