Uniswap founder Hayden Adams's bank account closed down by JP Morgan Chase


On Sunday, the
founder of the largest decentralized exchange protocol Uniswap, Hayden Adams, tweeted
that his JPMorgan Chase & Co bank account were shut down without giving
notice or an explanation for the closure and that he's not the only one to be
targeted this way.
In September, Uniswap
Labs, the developer of the world's largest decentralized exchange protocol, was
reportedly being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement
attorneys about how investors use the decentralized exchange protocol and how
it is marketed. Although the motives for
the debanking are not clear.
Adams further
stated that the incident was personal in nature as he knew "many
individuals and companies who have been similarly targeted simply for working
in the crypto industry."
The former US Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner Chairman Brian Quintenz responded with a comment suggesting that the move was likely an instance of "shadow de-banking of crypto by the Federal Reserves and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency bank examiners." He further explained that when the examiner in the bank tags risky, the customer doesn’t get prior notice or to know the reason for closing the account and ending the business relationship.
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As per U.S.
financial regulation, before broker-dealers can facilitate clients' trades,
they need to register with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
As funds are stored in consumers' wallets and not classified as securities,
Uniswap, does not need to register with relevant regulatory bodies. No further
information was provided by Quintenz to support his claim. There a link was
provided to Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis' which in November was published in
the Wall Street Journal.
A similar incident took place earlier:
Prior to this
also JP Morgan has closed the bank accounts of other crypto figures. A few
years ago, Chase shut down Kraken’s payroll account where the bank gave a 5-day
notice before doing so.

Indrani Bose
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA