JPMorgan’s New Scheme: Operation Chokepoint 3.0 – What You Need to Know!

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Well, well, well! It seems a certain general partner from that fancy venture capital firm is pulling back the curtain on a new banking trickery aimed at giving the crypto industry a good ol’ kick in the shins.

A16z Sounds the Alarm on JPMorgan’s ‘Operation Chokepoint 3.0’ Shenanigans

Now, despite JPMorgan’s big cheese, Jamie Dimon, publicly declaring that he’s seen the light and is now “a believer in stablecoins,” one of the sharp minds over at Andreessen Horowitz, Alex Rampell, claims the bank is quietly playing the villain by charging crypto and fintech firms an arm and a leg just to access their banking goodies.

“The banks are aiming to implement their own Chokepoint 3.0, charging ridiculously high fees to access data or move money to crypto and fintech apps,” Rampell quips in a Thursday newsletter article. “And, more alarmingly, they’re blocking crypto and fintech apps they don’t fancy,” he adds, probably while shaking his fist at the sky. 😠

Now, let’s not forget that Operation Choke Point 2.0 was a sneaky little endeavor by the Biden administration to put the squeeze on crypto through debanking and other dastardly means. But fear not, dear reader! The Trump administration has since tossed most of those underhanded policies into the dustbin of history. This new caper at JPMorgan, however, is not a government plot but rather a scheme hatched right in the bank’s own lair, and Rampell believes the Trump folks ought to step in and put a stop to JPMorgan’s antics.

“We don’t need a new law,” Rampell explains, probably while sipping a cup of coffee. “We just need the administration to prevent this cold-hearted and manipulative attempt to snuff out competition and consumer choice.”

(Alex Rampell, the brainiac at Andreessen Horowitz, leading the firm’s $1 billion Apps practice / Andreessen Horowitz)

Rampell, a serial entrepreneur who started coding at the tender age of 10 and graduated from Harvard with a degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, points to an article from earlier this month as evidence of JPMorgan’s nefarious intentions. The piece reveals that the bank has decided to change the game on how it handles data requests from tech companies looking to peek at customers’ banking secrets. Many payment and crypto apps, like Venmo, Robinhood, and Coinbase, have been able to transfer data to and fro user bank accounts without a hitch—until now, that is.

“If it suddenly costs $10 to move $100 into a Coinbase or Robinhood account, maybe fewer folks will bother,” Rampell explains, probably with a smirk. “And if JPM and their pals can block consumers from connecting their own chosen crypto and fintech apps to their bank accounts, they’re effectively pulling the rug out from under competition.”

JPMorgan has already sent out new fee schedules to data aggregators, those middlemen who play nice between fintech apps and banks. The article Rampell referenced states that these fees will be rolling out “later this year.” Dimon claims “third parties should compensate banks for access to their systems,” but Rampell suspects the bank’s true motive is a tad more sinister than that.

“Make no mistake: this isn’t about a new revenue stream,” Rampell warns, probably with a dramatic flair. “It’s about strangling competition. And if they get away with this, every bank will be jumping on the bandwagon.”

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2025-08-02 12:03