JPMorgan Chase Closes Bank Accounts Of Uniswap Founder

Last week, the financial holding JPMorgan closed the accounts of the founder of the Uniswap decentralized exchange, Hayden ADAMS, without notice or explanation. Last year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) initiated an investigation against Uniswap Labs, which operates one of the largest decentralized crypto exchanges, Uniswap. SEC lawyers intend to find out the specifics of trading on this platform, and how traders use its protocol.

Former Chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Brian QUINTENZ expressed his opinion on the current situation. He believes that the US Federal Reserve and the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "are engaged in the shadow debanking of cryptocurrencies, having received an order from above." If the examiner considered the certain client risky, and reported this to the bank, the bank terminates relations with him. However, according to the agreement concluded with the client, the bank may not notify him of the reasons for closing accounts, Quintenz wrote in comments to Hayden Adams' tweet.

This is not the first time JPMorgan Chase has closed the bank accounts of crypto executives. In 2018, ShapeShift CEO Eric VOORHEES and Kraken CEO Jesse POWELL found themselves in a similar situation. In 2020, JPMorgan announced that it has become more Bitcoin-friendly and is ready to contribute to the development of the cryptocurrency industry. But six months later, JPMorgan Chase closed the accounts of the mining company Compass Mining without warning.

Image: Uniswap