As per a post on the Wasabi Wallet website dated April 27, the ban extends to U.S. citizens and residents, including individuals with permanent residency or holding a U.S. passport. It will be effective immediately.
American citizens will no longer have access to websites such as wasabiwallet.io, api.wasabiwallet.io, and zksnacks.com.
zkSNACKs has announced the blocking of access for U.S. citizens and residents to its websites. Consequently, downloading or utilizing the Wasabi Wallet and associated services such as APIs and RPC interfaces is prohibited.
“U.S.” refers to “United States” and includes the several states of the United States and related territories. If you are a United States citizen or United States resident, you are not allowed to visit any of the of the sites aforementioned, download Wasabi Wallet, or use the Wasabi Wallet coin-join feature. This includes whether you are a U.S. permanent resident or if you are an individual who holds a U.S. passport. – zkSNACKs, Wasabi Wallet developer
Citing “recent announcements by U.S. authorities” as the catalyst, the developer has adopted this new position. This aligns zkSNACKs with a trend among various crypto platforms, responding to heightened scrutiny from U.S. regulators by modifying their services.
For example, Phoenix Wallet declared its intention to halt operations for U.S. residents effective May 3, and it will remove its app from U.S. app stores. As reported, ACINQ, the entity behind Phoenix Wallet, recommended its U.S. users to promptly withdraw their funds. However, it cautioned against force-closing wallets to prevent incurring higher fees.
ACINQ, like zkSNACKs, stated that they removed the Phoenix Wallet from U.S. app stores due to concerns raised by recent U.S. government statements regarding potential regulation of self-custodial wallets, Lightning service providers, and Lightning nodes.
Just recently, federal prosecutors in New York indicted the founders of Samourai Wallet, accusing them of participating in illicit transactions exceeding $2 billion. These charges come with significant penalties, underscoring a wider crackdown by U.S. authorities on crypto wallets and mixers engaged in activities considered dubious.
This development has ignited debate within the crypto community, with some advocating for privacy rights within the framework of Bitcoin’s principles.
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