US Bill Seeks to Protect Unhosted Crypto Wallets From Regulators

A U.S. bill seeks to prevent government agencies from limiting a person’s use of self-hosted cryptocurrency wallets, a technology that has been in the crosshairs of regulators over the past year. A copy of the bill was provided to CoinDesk.

• The bill was introduced on Feb. 15 by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), a member of the Blockchain Caucus, and would ban agencies from “restricting the use of convertible virtual currency by a person to purchase goods or services for the person’s own use, and other purposes.”
• The legislation also prevents agencies from prohibiting users from “conducting transactions through a self-hosted wallet.”
• Self-hosted or unhosted crypto wallets have been targeted by U.S. regulations over the course of the past year.
• In late 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department proposed a controversial rule that would require crypto exchanges to collect personal details, including names and home addresses, from users wanting to transfer their cryptocurrency into a private wallet.
• The unhosted crypto wallet rule was driven by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, since succeeded by Janet Yellen, though she hasn’t killed the possibility of the rule being implemented.

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