Phoenix and Wasabi pulled themselves out of the US market in a clash of wallets

ACINQ's Bitcoin Wallet, Phoenix Wallet and zkSNACKs' Wasabi Wallet are both losing services to US customers due to the recent attacks on two major cryptocurrency wallet providers.

Following US regulatory agencies' recent actions against Metamask creator Consensys and crypto mixer Samurai Wallet, both ACINQ and zkSNACKs have raised concerns about whether self-sustaining wallet providers can be viewed as legitimate financial services businesses.

In a statement on April 27, zkSNACKs said: “Due to recent announcements by US authorities, zkSNACKs now strictly prohibits US users from using its services.

“Recent announcements from US authorities have raised doubts about whether self-secured wallet providers, lightning service providers, or lightning nodes could be considered money service businesses and regulated as such,” ACINQ said in an April 26 post on X.

ACINQ has given Phoenix Wallet users until May 2 to adapt to the upcoming changes, while the new policy on Wasabi Wallet is “effective immediately.”

ACINQ advises Phoenix Wallet users to flush their wallets but avoid “forcefully closing” their wallets, as “on-chain charges can be significant.”

Recently, regulators around the world have argued that self-sustaining crypto wallets could help facilitate illegal activities such as money laundering.

On April 25, Cointelegraph reported that Consensys received a Notice of Wells from the SEC on April 10, warning of enforcement actions related to its MetaMask Swaps and MetaMask Staking products.

The SEC said in a conference call that Consensys is acting as an unregistered broker-dealer.

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Meanwhile, just a day earlier, on April 24, Cointelegraph reported that the co-founders of the cryptocurrency mixer Samurai Wallet were arrested on charges of counterfeiting brought by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and other agencies.

Zamora Wallet CEO Keon Rodriguez and Chief Technology Officer William Hill each face one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to conduct an unauthorized money transmission business. Five years imprisonment.

Meanwhile, European regulators recently relaxed proposed rules regarding self-sustaining wallets.

On March 23, Cointelegraph reported that a majority of the European Parliament's steering committee has banned 1,000 euro ($1,080) crypto payments from self-hosted crypto wallets as part of new anti-money laundering rules.

However, crypto exchanges must take due care such as identity verification checks on users conducting trades of at least €1,000.

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