Hoskinson says banks are marketing crypto with their actions after Kanye West, JP Morgan fallout

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson made the statement in reaction to a picture of Kanye West wearing a cap with a Satoshi Nakamoto inscription after he was de-banked by JPMorgan.

Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated that American banks have helped to market crypto better than the industry players, according to an Oct. 17 tweet.

People keep asking why isn't the cryptocurrency space doing a better job at marketing, the answer is that every bank in America does a pretty good job of doing it for us pic.twitter.com/OANsCCDPMw

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) October 17, 2022

Hoskinson made the statement in reaction to a picture of Kanye West wearing a cap with a Satoshi Nakamoto inscription after he was de-banked by JPMorgan.

JPMorgan cut ties with Kanye West

Media reports revealed that U.S. banking giant JPMorgan had cut ties with the legendary rapper earlier in the month and had given him until Nov. 21 to move his assets to another financial institution.

The bank reportedly did not give a reason for its decision.

Many people have assumed that the bank made its decision after West’s recent anti-semitic statement. Before then, the rapper had criticized the bank’s leadership and had frayed relationships with several prominent business partners, including Adidas.

Kanye West says he broke no law

In a widely circulated video on Twitter, Kanye West said he did not break any law, adding that JPMorgan’s decision was surprising.

Kanye West speaks out after getting debanked: “I put $140 million into JP Morgan and they treated me like sh*t. So if JP Morgan Chase is treating me like that, how are they treating the rest of y’all?” pic.twitter.com/YYuMgqfqT5

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 16, 2022

West said:

“I put $140 million into JP Morgan and they treated me like sh*t. So if JP Morgan Chase is treating me like that, how are they treating the rest of y’all?”

Financial censoring

Several traditional financial institutions have recently wielded the big stick, cutting ties with different individuals and institutions without giving a specific reason.

Portuguese banks closed accounts of several crypto firms, including CriptoLoja and Mind the Coin, without giving any reason. The same scenario played out in the United States, with JP Morgan Chase closing the account of Uniswap founder Hayden Adams last year without notice or explanation. Before that, it closed Bitcoin miner Compass Mining accounts in 2019.

Apart from these traditional financial institutions, PayPal was recently in the news over a now-canceled misinformation policy that would fine its users up to $2500 for misinformation.

Meanwhile, several sexual content creators revealed traditional financial institutions like  PayPal, Venmo, Circle, Square, and Cash App had prevented them from using their services because it is a violation of their terms of use,

Financial censors could boost crypto adoption

The traditional financial institutions’ penchant for the arbitrary closure of user accounts could boost crypto adoption.

Protesters in Canada and Nigeria had used the censorship-resistance nature of crypto to their advantage when the traditional financial institutions clamped down on their fundraising activities.

Ukraine had also used crypto for fundraising for its defense against the Russian invasion of its border.