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The crypto industry has continued to doggedly pursue proof of their enormously dubious claims that the FDIC and other financial regulators have been engaging in “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” [I71]. Coinbase has been busy filing Freedom of Information Act requests, hoping to secure documents that would prove that the FDIC was involved in such a nefarious campaign to “de-bank” the crypto industry by ordering banks to deny accounts or other services to anyone involved with the sector. Having failed to obtain such proof, Coinbase is going with the second best option: loudly proclaiming that they have such proof, and hoping no one will bother to dig through the rather dry emails between banks and banking regulators. Fortunately, I have several years of practice in digging through dry documents crypto industry figures hope no one will actually read. “In short, the contents are a shameful example of a government agency trying to cut off financial access to law-abiding American companies,” wrote Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal on Twitter.21 In long, the documents actually reflect mostly requests for more information about blockchain-related services provided or used by banks themselves, where the FDIC was seeking to do things like “gain an understanding of how the bank will ensure continued safe and sound operation as this activity is implemented”. Where the FDIC did request banks pause activities, it was again where those banks wer