🎙️ My guest today is Caitlin Long, Founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, a 22-year Wall Street veteran, and one of the most influential voices in Bitcoin policy and financial regulation. A Harvard-trained lawyer and early Bitcoin advocate, Caitlin played a central role in turning Wyoming into the most crypto-friendly legal jurisdiction in the United States, helping pass over 20 blockchain-enabling laws. In this episode, Caitlin walks us through her ongoing legal battle with the Federal Reserve, the hidden mechanics of Operation Chokepoint 2.0, and why access to a Fed master account is the front line of financial freedom. We discuss the stablecoin wars, the surveillance threats of CBDCs, and how privacy, law, and innovation are colliding inside the US banking system. Above all, this is a conversation about fighting centralized control, defending open access to money, and building the legal rails for a Bitcoin-native financial future.
► This episode is part of the "Bitcoin Vegas 2025 Special" in collaboration with Ben Samocha, Founder of Israel’s CryptoJungle and Crypto Talks podcast.
This episode is also on Twitter, Spotify, Fountain, Rumble and more.
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My takeaways from this episode:
Caitlin explains how the Federal Reserve reversed course on Custodia Bank’s master account days after the FTX collapse, exposing the political nature of its denial
She describes Operation Chokepoint 2.0 as a coordinated, behind-the-scenes campaign by US agencies to debank the crypto industry using informal pressure and regulatory gray zones
She reveals how the Fed pressured Custodia’s partner banks to close accounts, effectively cutting them off from the financial system in retaliation for filing a lawsuit
Caitlin outlines why access to a Fed master account is critical infrastructure that grants root access to the US dollar system and control over payment rails
She breaks down the implications of stablecoin adoption and why she believes it poses a direct threat to both the traditional banking system and Eurodollar dominance
The conversation contrasts stablecoins with CBDCs, highlighting how financial surveillance already exists in today’s system and that CBDCs would only formalize it
Caitlin calls for an end to taxation on Bitcoin and stablecoins, arguing this friction prevents them from functioning as true monetary assets
She discusses how Wyoming’s trailblazing crypto laws were designed to make Bitcoin compatible with commercial law and immune to future legal attack
We explore how the Fed quietly changed its interpretation of law to give itself discretionary control over who gets access without publishing new rules
Caitlin warns that without legal clarity innovation will be stifled and that the fight for open permissionless finance will increasingly play out in courtrooms
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