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However, “Operation Chokepoint” has also become a popular conservative hobbyhorse, and the true history of the program’s scale, purpose, impact, and ongoing existence is heavily exaggerated. Much of the exaggeration was seeded by the gun lobby, which pushed overblown claims to portray a narrative where Democratic lawmakers and bankers extrajudicially discriminated against gun owners and dealers.33 In February 2023, bitcoiner and venture capitalist Nic Carterf published an article in Pirate Wiresg titled “Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs”. Its subtitle, “detailing the Biden Admin’s coordinated, ongoing effort across virtually every US financial regulator to deny crypto firms access to banking services”, laid out the thesis, which he rather grossly decides constitutes “redlining”. Andreessen went even further to blame the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency established post-financial crisis to supervise a broad range of financial firms (including banks, fintechs, lenders, and so on). He even tried to pin the entire 2022 crypto collapse on “debanking”, and not, oh I don’t know, the massive fraud among companies that were leveraged up to their eyeballs. These debanking gripes — echoed after Andreessen’s Rogan appearance by other cryptocurrency and fintech executives sharing their “debanking stories” — are an egregious attempt by those profiting from predatory financial practices to