JPMorgan Debanks Jack Mallers Amid MSCI Crypto Index Shake-Up

Jack Mallers, founder of the bitcoin-focused payments platform Strike, has accused the U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase of abruptly closing his banking accounts in September.

This incident has renewed concerns about Operation Chokepoint 2.0, an alleged coordinated effort by federal regulators under President Biden to pressure banks into denying services to crypto firms and executives.

Strike CEO Jack Mallers Debanked by JPMorgan, Bitcoin Community Raises Concerns Over Return of Operation Chokepoint 2.0

The Strike CEO wrote in a Sunday X post that JPMorgan “threw me out of the bank”. While the bank claimed in its letter that his accounts were closed due to “concerning activity” detected during routine reviews, Mallers said the incident was bizarre because his father has been a client of the bank for over 30 years.

He expressed his frustration over the bank’s lack of transparency, with the letter referencing the Bank Secrecy Act, while providing no specific details. JPMorgan stated that it is “committed to regulatory compliance” and ensuring the “security and integrity of the financial system,” while warning him that he may not be able to open new accounts with the bank in the future.

Following Maller’s revelation, the former head of Trump’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, Bo Hines, called out JPMorgan, asking whether the bank was aware that Operation Choke Point is over. Hines now serves as a strategic advisor at stablecoin issuer Tether.

The Maller situation is puzzling because it was only in August that President Donald Trump signed an executive order that explicitly banned the practice of debanking crypto entities, penalizing banks that continue to do so. During a June interview, the President acknowledged that he understands the seriousness of the situation because he was a victim of it himself due to politics.

“The big banks were very nasty to us,” said Trump.

Eric Trump, the eldest son of the President, revealed in May that the actions taken by “some of the biggest banks in the world” to cancel the family’s bank accounts drove them to embrace bitcoin and crypto.

In a reply to Maller, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino wrote that what happened is “for the best,” before adding in a different post that bitcoin will resist the test of time, and organizations that try to undermine it will “fall and become dust” because they can’t stop people from choosing to be free.

Meanwhile, Fireblocks’ chief legal and compliance officer, Jason Allegrante, told crypto media outlet Decrypt that trying to “choke off” crypto won’t make it go away, as it will just push the industry to “thrive elsewhere and leave the U.S. behind”.

He also warned that delegating so much power to financial regulators leaves “major questions” about who can access the U.S. financial system and “undermines” the democratic rule of law for everyone.

However, Mallers saw the funny side to his situation, even framing the JPMorgan Chase letter.

MSCI to Exclude Crypto Treasury Companies, Including Strategy and Sharplink Gaming, from its Indexes in 2026

The backlash against the financial services giant among the bitcoin community grew stronger following news that digital asset treasury companies could be excluded from MSCI’s indexes in February 2026.

In October, the index firm owned by JPMorgan Chase announced that it was speaking with the investment community on whether to exclude DATs that have a balance sheet with more than 50% in crypto assets. Some of the feedback that the bank received was that digital asset treasuries can exhibit similar characteristics to investment funds, which are currently not eligible for inclusion in the index.

Charlie Sherry, head of finance at Australian crypto exchange BTC Markets, said that the odds of the MSCI excluding DATs from its indexes next year are high because the firm only discusses such changes when they are “already leaning that way.”

The MSCI is also seeking input on additional parameters, such as whether a company defines itself as a DAT or has raised capital with the primary objective of accumulating crypto assets. Sherry also warned that if the MSCI decides to exclude crypto treasury firms, then the said index-tracking companies would need to sell their assets, which alone would create pressure on the affected names.

A preliminary list has noted 38 crypto firms on the MISC’s radar, including Strategy, Metaplanet, Sharplink Gaming, Riot Platforms, Semler Scientific, and Coinshares, among others.

A note from JPMorgan analysts last Wednesday warned that if MSCI decides to remove DATs from its equities indices, then outflows from those companies could amount to roughly $9 billion, with Strategy alone shedding $2.8 billion. This will be the case if other index providers choose to follow in MSCI’s direction by excluding crypto treasury firms.

Bitcoin Community Calls for Boycotting JPMorgan Chase, Calling it the “Head of the Banking Crime Syndicate”

Real estate investor and bitcoin advocate Grand Cardano responded to the news by calling for a boycott of the bank, claiming that he withdrew $20 million from his Chase account and is suing them for credit card malfeasance.

Meanwhile, bitcoin maximalist and economic advisor to President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, Max Keiser, joined the boycott movement by asking the community to “crash JPMorgan and buy Strategy and BTC”.

Prominent investor Fred Krueger wrote in an X post that JPMorgan has been the “head of the banking crime syndicate” since the 2008 financial crisis, through the Obama, Trump 1.0, and Biden administrations. He claimed that the Federal Reserve works for the banking behemoth and hates bitcoin, DeFi, and stablecoins.

Krueger claimed that Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and the potential new Fed chairman are the counterparty who will position Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.

“This is going to be an EPIC battle,” he wrote. 

Michael Saylor Unwavered by MSCI Exclusion Rumors, Says Indexes Don’t Define Strategy’s Operations

However, Strategy, which entered the Nasdaq 100, a stock market index of the 100 largest companies by market cap on the tech-focused exchange, in December 2024, is on track to be possibly included in the S&P 500, a stock market index tracking the performance of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States.

The Nasdaq 100 inclusion allowed the company to reap the benefits of passive capital flows from funds and investors holding the index.

In response to JPMorgan’s decision to exclude his company from the proposed MSCI policy change, Michael Saylor said that Strategy “is not a fund, not a trust, and not a holding company. He argued that while funds and trusts passively hold assets and holding companies sit on investments, Strategy is a publicly traded operating company with a $500 million software business and a unique treasury strategy that creates, structures, issues, and operates”.

Saylor reiterated that an index classification doesn’t define Strategy, as the company’s strategy is long-term and its conviction in bitcoin is “unwavering”. He also declared that the bitcoin treasury giant’s mission is to build the “world’s first digital monetary institution on a foundation of sound money and financial innovation”.

With the MSCI policy change now on the horizon, DATs are faced with two daring choices: reduce crypto holdings to below the 50% threshold to qualify for index inclusion, or lose the passive capital flows from the market indexes.

Market analysts are warning that a sudden sell-off from DATs impacted by MSCI’s decision could force crypto prices to tank.