A Biden appointee, like MetaMask, has targeted Phantoms in the administration’s final days.

Joe Biden's outgoing presidential administration's nominee for the Hail Mary application wants to hold crypto Wallet Developers are liable for scams or wrongful transactions against consumers – but the move is likely to be repealed after Donald Trump takes office later this month.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a new proposal today Interpretation rule Financial institutions that provide electronic money transfers will be given the authority to control the wallets of digital assets. Doing so allows the bureau to contain wallet providers. MetaMask and Phantom liable for fraudulent or erroneous, “unauthorized” transactions.

In the year The agency, which was created to protect consumers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, says it is legally allowed to make these adjustments, but is opening the proposed rule to public comment for two months.

“When people make new digital payments for their household expenses, they need to be confident that their transactions have not been tainted by malicious tracking or errors,” said Rohit Chopra, director of the bureau, in a statement today.

The response to the proposed regulation by crypto policy leaders has been swift and critical.

“Did you get kidnapped because you believe that a fashion model in Malaysia needs 5,000 baht to see you? Don't worry, your wallet can cover it,” quips Bill Hughes, senior advisor to Metamask creator Consensus. Post on Friday to X. (Disclosure: Consensys is one of 22 investors in Decrypt.)

“This is holding the hammer manufacturer (who often gives away the hammers for free) responsible for hammer misuse,” says Joey Krug, founding partner of Peter Thiel's technology-based business firm. Posted in turn.

Many see the move in crypto, if it's worth it, unsurprising — given the deep relationship between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Elizabeth Warren, perhaps the industry's most hated figure. Naughty.

Warren herself In 2007, he proposed the creation of the office, still a professor at Harvard. The current director of the agency, Rohit Chopra, He is a longtime Warren ally who was nominated for the position by Joe Biden in 2020.

If crypto leaders are upset about Friday's proposed regulation, however, they don't seem overly concerned about the potential damage. In 2020, the US Supreme Court Purchased That the president can dismiss the director of the office without reason.

In relation to the incoming Trump administration Pro-crypto position– and the Republicans' long-term obfuscation Anger Just the existence of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – Chopra and his efforts to regulate crypto wallet providers seem to be living on borrowed time.