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"Algorand Wallet is relaunching under a new brand: Pera Wallet. This is much more than a new name and logo; We are relaunching the most popular wallet in the Algorand ecosystem with a renewed focus on our roadmap, partner integrations and community."

Crypto exchange Bybit was hacked, resulting in a loss of $1.46 billion worth of crypto-assets in the biggest theft ever committed in the industry. North Korean hackers were likely responsible. They took control of one of Bybit's offline Ethereum wallets during a routine transfer between the firm's cold wallet and hot wallet, something it does when the balance in the hot wallet reaches a certain level. Only the Ethereum cold wallet was compromised and Bybit, with total assets under management are more than $20 billion, says it can cover the loss.

Coinbase Wallet now allows for the transfer of crypto through a link that can be sent through popular social media sites and messaging apps apps like iMessage, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. And there are no payment fee when sending USD Coin (USDC). Clicking the link will take the recipient to their device's app store to download Coinbase Wallet - if not already downloaded - where they can create a wallet in one click. If the funds aren't claimed within two weeks, they will be returned to the sender. There appear to be no transaction-size limits. https://www.coinbase.com/blog/with-coinbase-wallet-sending-money-is-now-as-easy-as-sending-a-text

In the guidance, the OCC writes that it is allowing banks to manage funds kept in a "hosted" wallet, an address that would essentially represent the relevant stablecoin's reserves. The watchdog adds, "We are not presently addressing the authority to support stablecoin transactions involving un-hosted wallets." "Un-hosted wallets" seem to refer to addresses individuals or businesses would control. This distinction has caused some confusion, with Coin Center's Jerry Brito raising the question whether this points to a possible prohibition on banking firms that support un-hosted wallets.

The Xiong'an branch of the Agricultural Bank of China in Hebei has produced the first hardware wallet designed for the digital yuan. The product was developed by the Party Working Committee of the Xiongan New Area and the People's Bank of China branch in Shijiazhuang. The new hardware wallet supports dual offline payments without an internet connection. The digital yuan wallet also features payments without the use of mobile phones. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Fnr4u8IjdgVi9_FIjOyFZQ

State-owned China Construction Bank (CCB) reportedly opened up registration for wallets using the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC) for a few hours. The wallet's services included payment, redemption, transfer, and credit card recharge, and there were four levels of wallet with varying balance (500,000, 300,000, 50,000 and 10,000 yuan) and payment limits. The bank was issuing each wallet with a unique identification number linked to the customer's information, including their name, password, mobile phone number, email address, customer number, and bank card number. However, CCB quickly disabled the feature from public users.

China's largest state-owned banks have reportedly started testing the "electronic wallet" component of the People's Bank of China's (PBOC's) "digital yuan" project. The tests are being conducted in cities including Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong. The municipal government of Shenzhen said it would cooperate in efforts to test the system for different applications. Banks are testing the e-wallet application to transfer money and make payments using the PBoC's digital yuan. The e-wallet, which can be downloaded as a mobile application, will be linked to a user's national ID number or telephone number to enable fund transfers.

CoinDesk grabbed a copy of the Terms and Services that users were required to agree to follow when signing up for the China Construction Bank (CCB) DC/EP central bank digital currency wallet, before it was pulled from the bank's website. It showed that apart from DC/EP wallets within CCB's mobile app that was offered, separate hardware wallets for DC/EP may also be in the works. It would be offered in a four-tier system...

A recently disclosed vulnerability in two popular hardware wallets would have allowed attackers to hold users' cryptocurrency for ransom without going anywhere near the device. ShiftCrypto, the Swiss company that manufacturers the BitBox hardware wallet, has disclosed a potential man-in-the middle ransom attack vector on the rival Trezor and KeepKey hardware wallets.

Coinbase CEO Tim Armstrong claimed that the U.S. Treasury is rumored to be working on a law to regulate self-hosted crypto wallets. The proposed law will require exchanges to verify the identity of users who use self-hosted wallets, before a withdrawal could be sent to their self-hosted wallet. https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/1331744884856741888

Mu Changchun, the Director General of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), clarified how the managed anonymity of China's digital yuan works. Wallets come in multiple tiers, with small transaction value tiers supporting anonymity by requiring only a phone number as identity, but larger-value tiers requiring conventional proof of identity. Under China's Personal Information Protection Law, the telecom companies cannot release identity information to any third parties, including the central bank. However, if it's suspected that some anonymous transactions are illicit, law enforcement agencies can present a legal warrant to the phone company to get the user's identity. Also, all wallets have a sub wallet function in which each merchant can have a separate wallet to avoid linking a person across merchants.

Tourists visiting the People's Republic of China can now pre-charge their digital yuan wallets using Visa and Mastercard payment options. Inbound tourists are reportedly able to make use of overseas mobile numbers to register and open e-CNY wallets and make use of the recharge wallet feature, which supports Visa and Mastercard payments. They must "top up" with at least 100 yuan (around $14) and if they have any funds left in their wallets when they depart China, they can request a refund, after which funds are automatically transferred back to their credit card accounts. This coincides with the start of the Asian Games. https://cryptonews.com/news/foreign-travelers-can-now-use-chinas-digital-yuan-app.htm

Amid growing concerns over centralized cryptocurrency exchanges in the wake of the FTX crisis, investors are increasingly moving to hardware crypto wallets. Hardware wallet provider, Trezor, saw its sales revenue surge 300% week-on-week and it's still growing in the aftermath of the FTX debacle. Ledger, a major rival hardware wallet supplier, has also recorded a significant surge in demand for its devices recently as well. And now even some of the biggest crypto exchanges have started promoting the need for self-custody. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao admitted on November 14 that centralized exchanges may no longer be necessary as investors would shift to self-custodial solutions like hardware or software wallets.

The legislation of the European Digital Identity Wallet is finalized. The wallet can be used to store credentials like government IDs, drivers licenses, diplomas and insurance policies in a mobile app. It can, for example, be used as identification when opening bank accounts, or use any government service anywhere in Europe. It can also be used to log in and sign contracts, or present selected attributes like age threshold compliance. The wallet is planned to be available in 2025 or 2026. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_23_5651

China has launched its first automated digital yuan wallet-opening machine for holders of overseas passports, Hong Kong and Macau ID cards, and other identity verification documents. The machine allows users to exchange foreign currency banknotes for digital yuan on an automatically opened hard wallet. Existing digital yuan wallet holders can also use the machine to make overseas cash-powered top-ups. Visitors to China had been able to buy digital yuan with overseas payment cards via the central bank's official CBDC mobile app. https://www.21jingji.com/article/20231225/herald/c19cc78b8ec4fd1155889907f7efcdd3.html

"Built to enable an ideal banknote exchange for Central Bank Digital Currency, the IDEMIA secure offline CBDC wallet makes a highly secure digital cash experience truly available to everyone and at any time. This secure wallet allows a user to make consecutive digital offline payments with immediate settlement. The CBDC wallet user can initiate offline payments using any channel: contactless, email, QR Code, and the same terminals and standards currently used for card payments. The offline CBDC payments can be received by any device (secured or not), with or without an internet connection to the ledger."

"Recent news reports have shone a light on Binance-Peg BUSD ("PBUSD") and how it doesn't always appear to have been completely backed by BUSD issued by Paxos. PBUSD is minted on several blockchain networks including BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon, and TRON. PBUSD has always been, and continues to be, 100% collateralized. However, the collateral has not always been stored in a single, dedicated wallet in real time so that the 1:1 backing was not always immediately visible to users. Binance undertook a project to centralize the collateral in a single, dedicated wallet; this was completed on 04 January 2023 so that users have visibility into the 1:1 backing of PBUSD. Minting of PBUSD now only takes place after collateral is added to the dedicated wallet. Centralization of collateral for all Binance-backed tokens into dedicated collateral wallets will be completed by 09 February. This will be visible in the Proof of Reserves system that we are continuing to develop."

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) are expanding the scope of the e-CNY pilot in Hong Kong to facilitate the set up and the use of e-CNY wallets by Hong Kong residents, as well as the top-up of e-CNY wallets through the Faster Payment System (FPS). This marks the world's first linkage of a faster payment system with a central bank digital currency (CBDC) system. Users can now set up e-CNY personal wallets in Hong Kong, which requires only their Hong Kong mobile phone numbers. The e-CNY wallets can then be used for cross-boundary payments to merchants, but not person-to-person (P2P) transfers.

Wallet, a third-party cryptocurrency wallet app on Telegram, will impose stricter know your customer (KYC) rules to access all features. Before the update, users did not need to complete any KYC, but they will have to provide their name, birthdate and phone number for "basic" transaction limit levels. "Extended" access will require the user's national identification, and providing the residential address remove all transfer limits. https://wallet.helpscoutdocs.com/article/239-identity-verification

Bybit was largely following best practices by storing only as much currency as needed for day-to-day activity in warm and hot wallets, and keeping the rest in the multisig cold wallets. Transferring funds out of cold wallets required coordinated approval from multiple high-level employees of the exchange. But no matter how strong your smart contract logic or multisig protections are, the human element remains the weakest link. This attack proves that UI manipulation and social engineering can bypass even the most secure wallets.