- Wallet of Satoshi has withdrawn from the US due to evolving regulations
- Concerned about potential regulatory issues, the Wallet of Satoshi team removed the app from Google and Apple stores
- The decision may be influenced by the impending crypto aspect of the Infrastructure Bill, effective in January, potentially categorizing Wallet of Satoshi as a broker
Bitcoin Lightning wallet Wallet of Satoshi announced recently that it has quit America, citing the changing regulatory landscape. Despite Bitcoin not being classed as a security, the Wallet of Satoshi team is concerned enough about potentially being caught up in a breach of regulations to pull the app from Google and Apple app stores. The decision may also have something to do with the forthcoming crypto element of the Infrastructure Bill that will come into effect in January and would define Wallet of Satoshi as a broker.
Wallet of Satoshi Pulls up US Shutters
Wallet of Satoshi made the announcement on its X feed on Friday, noting that “the decision doesn’t come lightly”:
To our valued Wallet of Satoshi community in the United States of America,
We’ve dedicated ourselves to providing the best Bitcoin experience with Wallet of Satoshi, being at the forefront of Lightning usability and adoption. However, we’ve made the difficult decision to remove…
— Wallet of Satoshi (@walletofsatoshi) November 24, 2023
The move is an unfortunate one for the Wallet of Satoshi team, coming in what was shaping up to be a record-breaking month; the wallet is on pace to process over 1.1 million Lightning payments this month.
Infrastructure Bill Impact Felt
In January, a new definition of ‘broker’ will come into effect in the US; the term is expanded to encompass “any person who, for compensation, facilitates transfers of digital assets on behalf of another.” This broadened language will encompass US cryptocurrency asset exchanges and digital wallet providers, as well as developers of decentralized finance software, miners, nodes, transaction validators, currency miners, validators, and developers.
This means that it is almost a certainty that Wallet of Satoshi would have been considered a broker, possibly explaining his move.
