JPMorgan and Strike CEO Jack Mallers Go Silent, Leaving 'Debanking' Questions Unanswered

The silence is deafening. When JPMorgan Chase, the undisputed titan of traditional finance, and Jack Mallers, the brash CEO of Bitcoin payments platform Strike, both go radio silent on the same contentious issue, you know something’s up.The question hanging in the air, thick with the stench of regulatory fear and old-money disdain, is one of ‘debanking’—the deliberate severing of banking relationships with crypto-native firms. This isn't some minor regulatory skirmish; it’s the front line in the war for financial sovereignty, and the sudden muteness from two key generals suggests the battle is entering a darker, more covert phase.Let’s cut through the noise. JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon has never been shy about his contempt for Bitcoin, famously calling it a ‘fraud’ and a ‘pet rock.’ Yet, beneath the public bluster, the bank has been cautiously dipping its toes into blockchain for years with its JPM Coin. Their silence now isn’t ignorance; it’s a calculated corporate strategy.To comment is to acknowledge the legitimacy of the debate, to admit that a bunch of cypherpunks and anarcho-capitalists have built something that can genuinely threaten their fee-extraction empire. They’re playing the long game, letting regulators and public sentiment do the dirty work of strangling innovation while they quietly position themselves to control whatever sanitized, permissioned version of digital assets eventually emerges from the regulatory meat grinder.Then there’s Jack Mallers. This is the guy who stood on stage at the Bitcoin 2022 conference and boldly declared he’d ‘bankrupt’ El Salvador’s opponents.His platform, Strike, built on the Lightning Network, represents everything the old guard fears: a fast, cheap, borderless monetary system that operates outside their control. For him to go quiet is profoundly out of character.The optimistic read is he’s in sensitive, behind-the-scenes negotiations. The pessimistic, and far more likely, read is that he’s been served a stark warning—either legal, regulatory, or financial—that has forced him into a tactical retreat.Perhaps a banking partner threatened to pull the plug. Maybe the SEC or OCC came knocking with questions that have no good answers.When the loudest voices in the room suddenly whisper, it’s usually because someone with a bigger stick just walked in. This phenomenon of debanking isn’t new; it’s the weapon of choice for a legacy system that cannot compete on a level technological playing field.Look at the UK’s NatWest limiting crypto exchanges, or Silvergate and Signature Bank being systematically dismantled. It’s a pattern: first, create regulatory uncertainty through contradictory statements and enforcement actions.

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#JPMorgan

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