Tyler Winklevoss says JPMorgan wants to block free access to bank data to destroy crypto and fintech startups

Tyler Winklevoss says JPMorgan is trying to kill crypto by charging people to access their own bank data. He posted on X accusing the $800 billion bank and other Wall Street players of launching an attack on open banking and the third-party apps that make crypto accessible to millions.

Tyler said they’re targeting companies like Plaid to cut off the link between your fiat account and your crypto wallet; Gemini, Coinbase, Kraken, all of them.

According to Tyler, who co-owns Gemini, JPMorgan and its allies “want to take away your right to access your banking data for free” and replace it with massive fees that would wreck the startups helping people move money into crypto.

That includes third-party aggregators, fintech bridges, and anyone building on top of the open banking rule under Section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act. Tyler warned that JPMorgan is actively suing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to kill the Open Banking Rule and shut the door on data access altogether.

Fees could crush small fintechs and block crypto transfers

Last month, JPMorgan told fintechs it plans to charge fees every time they access a customer’s account data. That means any time someone moves money from a JPMorgan Chase account to a crypto exchange like Coinbase or Kraken, the middlemen that provide the tech, like Plaid or MX, will now have to pay up.

They’re expected to pass those charges on to their clients. In some cases, the fees could even hit consumers. Another said the fees would be higher than what their fintech had earned in an entire decade. This would require everyone to raise prices by 1000% to cover the cost. Smaller startups would no longer be able to serve customers who bank with JPMorgan.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, said JPMorgan is taking ownership of customer data and treating it like a product. “Once data becomes a revenue stream, the goal is to fragment it, lock it in, and sell it at margin,” Arjun said on X.

Tyler’s post triggered hundreds of responses on X. One user said, “Chase has been relentlessly blocking my wires to Kraken even when I go into a physical branch.” Another said, “Big banks are terrified that you might actually control your own financial data. They’d rather keep you trapped.”

Andy Barr, who said he doesn’t care about crypto, still admitted this hurts fintech. “Open Banking is a basic thing most of the world has adopted or is adopting,” he said. “Not enforcing it would just put us further behind.”

One user argued that giving Plaid or any third party your bank login credentials is a bad idea. “Remember, if it is free, you are the product,” they wrote.

Jamie Dimon wants total control, with no competition

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, made it clear during a 2021 analyst call that he doesn’t like fintechs. He told investors that traditional banks should be “scared sh**less” of startups like Plaid and that competition would be brutal for the next decade. He said he expects to win that fight, and since then, he’s been trying to make sure no one else does.

Jamie wrote in his annual shareholder letter this year that a battle with third-party aggregators was already building. He said JPMorgan is willing to share data, but only if it’s done the way they want. Customers, he said, should authorize everything.

They should also know exactly how their data is being used and when. He claimed that companies like Plaid are exploiting bank data for profit and argued that they should be forced to pay to use JPMorgan’s infrastructure.

During JPMorgan’s earnings call, Jamie added that running APIs and keeping systems secure costs real money. But not everyone buys that logic. Critics believe this is about cutting off competition, not protecting customers. Harshita Rawat, a research analyst at Bernstein, estimated JPMorgan has about 20 million checking accounts.

That’s 20 million people who could soon be blocked from using third-party apps with crypto. The bank has already told Plaid and other aggregators that fees are coming. Nobody knows the exact price tag yet.

PayPal and Block might be fine for now. Analysts think they have already worked out deals with JPMorgan that shield them from these new costs. But others say this view is too optimistic. 

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