If you mention anything related to "cryptocurrency" or "Web3," you will be rejected.

Written by: Austin King, Co-founder of Omni Network

Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News

Recently, a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen revealed that many founders feel threatened by the banking system. I am one of them: out of fear of retaliation, I have never publicly discussed this matter.

So what is it really like when it happens to you? My personal first experience was in 2021 when I tried to open the first bank account for my company.

The Beginning of the Story

When I was preparing to open our first account, several banks rejected me. Whenever you want to open a business account, the bank will ask what your company does. If you mention anything related to "cryptocurrency" or "Web3," you will be rejected. After mentioning these terms and being rejected multiple times, you start to realize what is happening, so I began using phrases like "early fintech startup." Eventually, this tactic worked, and I successfully opened a bank account, allowing me to conduct business operations in this country.

Repeated Setbacks

Is that all there is to it? No, it is a repeated and ongoing process of setbacks. Once you have an account, you realize that having only one account is a serious risk for the business. You will eventually receive an email with a subject like this:

You will open it, but this request really doesn't make much sense because they already have the documents they are asking for, yet you still comply and submit the documents. The problem is that compliance does not resolve the issue; even if we quickly respond with all the requested documents, our account is still arbitrarily frozen.

This account freeze prevented us from issuing payroll. My team has a lot of faith in me, but when the company cannot issue payroll, you will definitely start to question whether this is a stable place where you can work long-term. When you hear from the boss, "Honestly, we have the money, we submitted all the requested documents almost immediately, and I really believe we are being targeted because we are involved in cryptocurrency work," you can't be sure. Another example:

Sounds reasonable, right? They just want a few documents and gave us 5 business days. The problem is: sometimes they don't even respond within 5 business days; it's not about submitting documents, but about their approval of the documents. They simply re-request the same documents that have already been submitted without explaining what the issues with those documents are. This strategy reflects how the SEC has stifled cryptocurrency in the U.S. over the past four years: unclear rules that leave people operating in a fog, suffocated by bureaucratic ambiguity rather than being directly attacked.

We are not the only victims. I have spoken with many investors from Omni who have found this situation occurring in many of their investment projects, to the extent that their portfolio support teams actively help teams establish multiple independent bank accounts to mitigate risk.

Why Can I Talk About This Now?

Because if someone like Marc Andreessen publicly discusses this issue, I feel that the likelihood of being targeted individually decreases. I previously refrained from publicly expressing my opinion out of concern that it would bring more risk to me personally and to the business. The main reason I am publishing this article is to provide further evidence that this is a real problem stifling innovation in the U.S. Over the past four years, the government has actively pushed for cryptocurrency innovation to move overseas. I believe this is truly dangerous for the U.S. We need to take a leadership role in the cryptocurrency space rather than pushing innovation to arbitrary countries like the Bahamas. Cryptocurrency is a technology that has the potential to significantly enhance the autonomy and personal freedom of people around the world. I really can't think of any other technology that aligns with the "American Dream" as closely as cryptocurrency does.

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