With the two-week commentary period winding down, Jerry Brito, executive director of non-profit crypto policy advocate group Coin Center, says comments could make a difference in the ultimate outcome of the self-custodied wallet ruling recently proposed by the U.S. Treasury. “Coin Center is working with folks in Congress to get some letters sent to Secretary Mnuchin requesting an extension to the rushed comment period,” Brito said in a Dec. 28 tweet, adding: “Everyone in the cryptocurrency ecosystem should file a comment with FinCEN explaining how this rule would affect them and pointing out the unintended consequences. Filing a comment really …

The hacker likely responsible for Ledger’s security breach in July recently dumped a large amount of data exposing the personal information of over 270,000 customers, including phone numbers and physical addresses. The leak also included 1 million emails of Ledger wallet owners and customers that were signed up to the company’s newsletter service. Amid the furor caused by the incident, Ledger says its focus is on improving its security infrastructure rather than reimbursing users for any losses that may occur. Meanwhile, some affected customers are reportedly considering taking legal action against the company in the form of a class-action lawsuit. …

The Treasury has released its long-awaited proposal to restrict money services businesses, including U.S.-registered crypto exchanges, from dealing with self-hosted wallets. In a Friday evening announcement, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, announced proposed rules requiring registered crypto exchanges to verify the "identity of their customers, if a counterparty uses an unhosted or otherwise covered wallet and the transaction is greater than $3,000." The rule is currently just a proposal. The Treasury has given stakeholders 15 days to respond with comments. Rumors of the proposed rules have been circulating for the past month. With Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin …

As per recent rumors, United States Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, could drop a stringent piece of crypto-related legislation before his expected exit at 2020’s end. The ruling could potentially severely limit or ban self-custodied digital asset wallets — a key component of the entire industry. Cynthia Lummis, a U.S. Senator-elect hailing from the crypto-friendly state of Wyoming, finds the ruling harmful. “I spoke with Secretary Mnuchin last week and strongly pressed him for a better path forward,” Lummis said as part of a tweet thread on Friday, adding: “Congress is best placed to weigh the competing policy issues …

The crypto community has a saying: “Not your keys, not your coins,” which means that if you hold your crypto on a third-party custodial wallet, you don’t truly have ownership of the coins. The entity controlling the private key of the wallet ultimately has power over it. Self-hosted wallets, or non-custodial wallets, allow individuals to receive, send and store their own cryptocurrency without the need of a custodial entity. As life has become increasingly more digitized, the use of cash for transactions and as a store of value has declined considerably. For those in our economy with access to digital …

Major Italian private bank, Banca Generali, is planning to introduce cryptocurrency services in 2021. According to a Dec. 15 announcement, Banca Generali has entered a corporate and commercial partnership with Conio — a fintech company providing traditional financial institutions with solutions for managing digital assets including wallets and custody. A spokesperson for Banca Generali told Cointelegraph that the bank does not plan to launch a cryptocurrency exchange in the near future, but rather provide “service with Conio as wallet.” Banca Generali will also acquire a stake in Conio to support the company’s growth and the distribution of its products as …

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law. Editor’s note Last week’s Law Decoded sounded the alarm on threats to self-custodial wallets in the U.S. in particular. While such concerns have continued to take shape, nothing concrete has emerged from the U.S. Treasury, which was at the heart of last week’s conversation. Though I don’t like to recycle themes, it seems a reasonable time to ask the question: What is a crypto wallet as far as a regulator is concerned? While many people access their crypto through custodial solutions …

Ethereum wallet MetaMask is seeking to attract institutional investors into the decentralized finance sector with the soon-to-be-launched institutional-grade version. The popular wallet, with more than 1 million monthly active users, introduced token swaps in October this year, and is now looking to expand even further. Developers ConsenSys identified that DeFi protocols are currently too inefficient for professional trading firms, and there is no “robust reporting for accounting, tax, and [profit and loss statement] purposes.” As per the announcement, the upgraded version is aimed at “trading firms and crypto custodians” and will provide them with “institutional-grade features,” including the ability to …

Jeremy Allaire, CEO and co-founder of peer-to-peer payments firm Circle, sent a letter to senior staff of the United States Department of the Treasury on Dec. 9, appealing for regulators to collaborate with the industry in adopting crypto regulations. Allaire warned U.S. regulators that some of its proposed rules pose a direct risk to the country’s competitiveness and could potentially trigger unintended consequences around crypto and blockchain-related use cases. The exec specifically referred to a new proposal to prohibit so-called unhosted or self-hosted wallets. Allaire argued that the proposal does not address actual risks in the industry: “I believe the …

Several members of Congress have voiced opposition to a rumored blockade on self-hosted crypto wallets in the works at the U.S. Treasury. In a Dec. 9 letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, four members of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus wanted answers for rumored Treasury rulemaking that would restrict self-hosted wallet usage in the U.S. The authors — Warren Davidson, Tom Emmer, Ted Budd and Scott Perry — argue that such limitations: "Would hinder American leadership and preclude meaningful participation in the technological innovation currently underway throughout the global financial system." Speaking to Cointelegraph, Davidson noted that Treasury rulemaking is likely …

Cyber Security firm CipherTrace has issued a warning after noting a surge in reports over the past 24 hours of user funds being stolen by a malicious Chrome browser extension posing as popular crypto wallet MetaMask. The warning was issued under the headline, “ALERT: Malicious Crypto Browser Extension — Masked MetaMask” and reported the company had seen “an uptick of alerts and comments within the online cryptocurrency community of users’ funds being stolen.” In response to online criticism that MetaMask is not doing enough to steer its users away from potentially harmful websites and downloads, MetaMask’s chief product officer Jacob …

As cryptocurrency investment becomes more and more popular, long-term investors are increasingly concerned with the uncomfortable question: What happens to your Bitcoin (BTC) when you die? According to a 2020 study by the Cremation Institute, nearly 90% of crypto owners are worried about what will happen to their crypto after they pass away. Furthermore, despite a high level of concern, crypto holders are reportedly four times less likely to use wills for inheritances than non-crypto investors. As explained in its white paper, Bitcoin is a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash, allowing online payments to be sent directly from one …