JPMorgan Chase has formally acknowledged in court filings, as of February 21, 2026, that it shut down more than 50 accounts belonging to Donald Trump and his businesses in the weeks following the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. The admission, made by Dan Wilkening, JPMorgan's former chief administrative officer, is the first time the largest U.S. bank has conceded in a legal proceeding that it severed ties with a sitting or former president over what Trump's lawyers call political retaliation. The accounts spanned Trump hotels, housing developments, and retail shops in Illinois, Florida, and New York, as well as Trump's personal private banking relationship that handled his inheritance from his father.
The revelation lands in the middle of a $5 billion lawsuit filed by Trump against JPMorgan and CEO Jamie Dimon in late January 2026, and it carries weight far beyond the courtroom. The Trump family has repeatedly cited debanking as the catalyst for their pivot into cryptocurrency, culminating in the creation of World Liberty Financial and a suite of pro-crypto executive orders. For an industry that spent years fighting Operation Chokepoint 2.0, the admission is less a surprise and more a receipt.
50 Accounts, One Unsigned Note, and a Two-Month Deadline
The court filings paint a clinical picture. In February 2021, JPMorgan provided an unsigned note dated February 19, 2021, instructing Trump to "find a more suitable institution with which to conduct business." The accounts were set to close April 19, 2021, giving the Trump Organization exactly two months to relocate more than 50 banking relationships.
The closures hit both JPMorgan's commercial bank (CB) and private bank (PB) divisions. Trump's lawyers allege the accounts covered hotels, real estate developments, retail properties across three states, and Trump's personal wealth management, including assets inherited from his father. The breadth is notable: this was not a single account review or a compliance flag on one entity. It was a systematic purge across an entire client ecosystem.
JPMorgan spokeswoman Trish Wexler stated that the bank closes accounts posing "legal or regulatory risk" but not for political or religious reasons. Trump's legal team disputes that framing, alleging the closures came "without warning or provocation" and that JPMorgan "debanked plaintiff's accounts because it believed that the political tide at the moment favored doing so."
The Blacklist Allegation That Banks Do Not Want to Discuss
Perhaps the most consequential claim in the lawsuit is the blacklist. Trump's lawyers allege that JPMorgan placed the president and his companies on a reputational "blacklist" shared among banks that prevents flagged clients from opening accounts elsewhere. If true, the mechanism would explain a pattern the Trump Organization has described across multiple institutions. Trump also sued Capital One in March 2025 on similar debanking allegations, with Eric Trump claiming the bank stripped 300 accounts from him.
JPMorgan's response to the blacklist claim was notably evasive: "If and when Plaintiffs explain what they mean by this 'blacklist,' JPMorgan will respond accordingly." The non-denial has drawn attention from legal observers and from the crypto industry, where shared banking blacklists have been an open secret for years. Crypto companies from Coinbase to smaller DeFi startups have reported sudden account closures followed by an inability to open accounts at any major bank, a pattern consistent with shared exclusion lists.
Jamie Dimon's personal involvement is also under scrutiny. Trump alleges he raised the closure issue directly with Dimon, who "assured Trump he would figure out what was happening" but never followed up. JPMorgan's legal team has pushed to move the case from Florida state court to federal court in New York, arguing that Trump "fraudulently" included Dimon as a defendant to keep the case in a favorable jurisdiction.
From Debanked to DeFi: How Account Closures Built World Liberty Financial
The crypto connection is not subtext. It is the stated origin story.
At the World Liberty Forum in February 2026, Donald Trump Jr. told attendees: "We didn't get into crypto because we were on the leading edge. We got into it out of necessity." He called traditional banking "a Ponzi scheme" that forced the family to find alternatives outside the banking system.
World Liberty Financial, the Trump family's DeFi venture, has since grown into a significant player. A UAE firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan purchased a 49% stake for $500 million, with approximately $187 million directed to Trump family entities. The venture is developing a stablecoin called USD1, building a forex and remittance platform called World Swap, and pursuing a national bank charter through the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The irony is hard to miss. The same debanking that JPMorgan is now defending in court created the political will for executive orders that are reshaping how banks interact with the entire crypto industry. Trump's anti-debanking executive order, signed in his second term, explicitly targets the practice of closing accounts based on political or industry affiliation rather than individual risk assessment.
What This Means for Crypto Users Who Have Been Through the Same Thing
The JPMorgan admission validates what crypto users and businesses have reported for years. Account closures without explanation, inability to open new accounts at competing banks, and the suspicion of shared exclusion lists are not conspiracy theories. They are, at minimum, documented legal allegations against the largest bank in the United States, backed by court filings.
For individual crypto users, the practical lesson is risk diversification. Keeping all funds in a single banking relationship creates a single point of failure. Self-custody crypto cards eliminate bank-level debanking risk entirely because the issuer cannot freeze funds held in a user's own wallet. Cards from providers like Gnosis Pay and MetaMask let users spend directly from on-chain wallets without ever depositing into a custodial account that a bank or payment processor could unilaterally close.
For crypto businesses, the lawsuit may set legal precedent on whether banks can terminate relationships based on political or industry affiliation. A ruling against JPMorgan on the blacklist claim would have cascading effects on how every major bank handles crypto-adjacent clients.
The Broader Regulatory Collision Course
The timing of JPMorgan's admission is politically loaded. It arrives as the Trump administration is actively unwinding Operation Chokepoint 2.0, the informal pressure campaign that encouraged banks to cut ties with legal but politically disfavored industries, including crypto. The FDIC, OCC, and Federal Reserve have all issued guidance rolling back the practice, and the SEC under Chair Atkins has taken a markedly different posture toward digital assets.
JPMorgan's defense, that the closures were about "legal or regulatory risk" rather than politics, will be tested against the fact that Trump's businesses were legal enterprises before, during, and after the account closures. The bank is not alleging fraud, money laundering, or sanctions violations. It is arguing that it had the right to terminate a client relationship for unspecified risk reasons, which is exactly the argument crypto companies have heard for a decade.
The $5 billion damages claim is aggressive, and courts are not known for awarding that kind of money in banking disputes. But the discovery process alone could force JPMorgan to produce internal communications about why the accounts were closed, whether a blacklist exists, and who made the decision. That paper trail, regardless of the lawsuit's outcome, could reshape the debanking debate permanently.
FAQ
How many accounts did JPMorgan close? Court filings indicate more than 50 accounts across JPMorgan's commercial and private banking divisions, covering Trump hotels, housing developments, retail shops, and Trump's personal wealth management.
What is the blacklist allegation? Trump's lawyers claim JPMorgan placed the president and his companies on a reputational blacklist shared among banks that prevents flagged clients from opening accounts elsewhere. JPMorgan has not denied the existence of such a list.
How does this connect to cryptocurrency? The Trump family has cited debanking as the direct reason they entered the crypto industry, creating World Liberty Financial and signing anti-debanking executive orders. The lawsuit is effectively the legal backstory for the administration's crypto policy.
Can self-custody crypto cards prevent debanking? Self-custody cards let users spend from their own wallets without depositing into a custodial account. Since there is no banking relationship to terminate, the debanking risk is structurally eliminated.
Overview
JPMorgan Chase has admitted in court filings that it closed more than 50 accounts belonging to Donald Trump and his businesses in February 2021, weeks after the January 6 Capitol attack. The bank provided an unsigned note telling Trump to "find a more suitable institution." Trump's $5 billion lawsuit alleges political retaliation and a shared blacklist among banks. The admission is significant for crypto because the Trump family has directly cited debanking as the reason they entered the industry, leading to World Liberty Financial, a $500 million UAE investment, and executive orders rolling back Operation Chokepoint 2.0. For crypto users, the case underscores why non-custodial spending options and self-custody wallets remain the most reliable protection against institutional account risk.
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