Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Among Those Frozen ... May 2026

On his first day in office in January 2021, President Joe Biden issued a memorandum halting all "new or pending" rules from the previous administration. This "regulatory freeze" was a standard procedure to allow the incoming administration time to review pending policies.

The FinCEN wallet rule was one of the most prominent items caught in this freeze. The proposal would have required: Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Among Those Frozen ...

Advocates argued the rule was a "significant intrusion" into personal privacy and financial autonomy. On his first day in office in January

By 2026, the regulatory landscape shifted from total "freezes" to targeted implementation and legislative reform. The proposal would have required: Advocates argued the

Exchanges to verify the identity of owners for transactions over $3,000 to unhosted wallets.

The "Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule" originally refers to a controversial 2020 regulatory proposal by the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). It sought to impose strict reporting and record-keeping requirements on transactions involving "unhosted" (self-custodied) cryptocurrency wallets.

The rule sparked a "firestorm" within the crypto community, leading to over .