The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a letter on July 22, 2020 clarifying US national banks' and federal savings associations' authority to provide cryptocurrency custody services for their customers. This is a major step forward in bringing cryptocurrency to a place where more mainstream adoption is likely. The big questions are what’s different about providing custody of cryptocurrencies, and how will these mainstream institutions provide these services?
Read MoreThe announcement last week of Fusion Foundation’s $6.4M cryptocurrency theft was not major in terms of the magnitude of the loss on market scale, but it’s an important reminder that even the best secured wallets are no more secure than the security of the keys that protect them. The resulting loss of more than 80% in market cap value, (now improved to 40%) is also a reminder of the consequences to shareholders when such events happen.
Read MoreAs the popularity of cryptocurrency trading explodes, one of the biggest risk factors for existing and potential investors continues to be the large scale hacks of exchanges and digital wallets. Digital wallets are well-known across legacy applications such as e-payment and PKI, with cryptocurrencies now added to the list. Security is very important for all of these applications, but perhaps most for cryptocurrencies, because transactions are irrevocable when they’re used in conjunction with blockchain schemes.
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