The era of debanking the crypto industry may be over.
That’s according to Ledn CSO Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, who told Decrypt, “I don’t think banks are coming; I think they’re here,” referring to how major financial institutions are no longer hesitant to engage with crypto businesses.
Ledn is a huge success story when it comes to Bitcoin lending, having serviced over $6.5 billion in loans against the world’s largest crypto. But even a business of this scale felt the debanking pinch under the previous Biden administration.
In early 2023, U.S. regulators intensified scrutiny on banks servicing crypto firms, leading to the collapse of key industry banking partners like Silvergate and Signature Bank.
Widely referred to as Chokepoint 2.0, that wave of debanking allegedly forced even established firms like Ledn to navigate shifting financial relationships as traditional institutions pulled back from the sector.
“Thanks to our size when this all started, we were lucky,” Di Bartolomeo said. “We already had relationships of trust with several banks worldwide and so were able to move as needed. But smaller entrepreneurs were not so lucky and got left behind.”
Speaking about the company’s experience in Canada before Chokepoint 2.0, Mauicio said that they had bank accounts closed with no explanation, and when they enq…
