{"id":32537,"date":"2024-11-19T18:31:11","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02ecf91e800027e9"},"modified":"2025-02-19T10:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T15:49:40","slug":"good-riddance-martin-gruenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/takes\/good-riddance-martin-gruenberg","title":{"rendered":"Good Riddance, Martin Gruenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1_takes.png\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>Martin Gruenberg, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/livecoverage\/stock-market-today-dow-sp500-nasdaq-live-11-19-2024\/card\/fdic-chairman-gruenberg-will-leave-right-before-trump-inauguration-vpIPYTzqhDslQmehaHdt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced today<\/a> that he\u2019ll be stepping down on January 19, 2025, one day before Trump takes office.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to tell Mr. Gruenberg not to let the door hit him on the way out.<\/p>\n<p>The FDIC chair was one of the key players behind <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/print\/operation-choke-point-2-0-how-u-s-regulators-fight-bitcoin-with-financial-censorship-\">Operation Chokepoint 2.0<\/a> (as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/cei.org\/blog\/why-choke-point-should-bar-gruenberg-from-being-fdic-chair\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first Operation Chokepoint<\/a>), which included the unlawful debanking of a number of Bitcoin and crypto companies, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.piratewires.com\/p\/2023-banking-crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">almost spurred a global financial crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>During this tenure, Gruenberg directed the FDIC to take unlawful action against banks that served the Bitcoin and crypto industry seemingly because the industry was politically unfavorable.<\/p>\n<p>Gruenberg said he\u2019d be leaving his post in May of this year, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/05\/20\/economy\/fdic-chair-gruenberg-resigns\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reports<\/a> of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination occurring within FDIC under his watch surfaced but didn\u2019t offer a date for his departure until today.<\/p>\n<p>A number of prominent voices in the Bitcoin and crypto industry spoke out against Gruenberg, over the past two years. Most prominent among them was Castle Island Ventures partner <a href=\"https:\/\/niccarter.info\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nic Carter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The resignation of choke point Marty was bigger news than the ETH ETF. Here\u2019s why: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/g1KVX4ASMn\">https:\/\/t.co\/g1KVX4ASMn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; nic carter (@nic__carter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nic__carter\/status\/1792909828118974801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May 21, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>While Gensler will likely be remembered as the most disliked regulator by the Bitcoin and crypto industry under the Biden Administration, Gruenberg will be a close second.<\/p>\n<p>As we move forward with a new administration that has pledged to be more fair to the Bitcoin and crypto industry, let us take a moment to celebrate the exit of Gruenberg, a corrupt bureaucrat who tried and failed to stop a burgeoning industry by abusing his power.<\/p>\n<p><em>This article is a <\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/takes\/bitcoin-magazine-introduces-opinion-takes\">Take<\/a><\/em><em>. Opinions expressed are entirely the author&#8217;s and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FDIC Chairman \u2014 one of the main orchestrators of Operation Chokepoint 2.0 \u2014\u00a0can\u2019t leave fast enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2510,"featured_media":31802,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[2581,519,595,59],"class_list":{"0":"post-32537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-takes","8":"tag-corruption","9":"tag-fdic","10":"tag-operation-chokepoint-2-0","11":"tag-opinion"},"author_data":{"id":2510,"name":"Frank Corva","nicename":"frank-corva","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Frank_Corva-1.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/leonardo_phoenix_a_haunting_highcontrast_illustration_depictin_0.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2510"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}