Self-hosted wallets: the “electronic briefcase” and the verification duty for banks and CASPs
In late 2025 the Bank of Italy called the self-hosted wallet an electronic briefcase. Unlike cash it leaves traces. Reading the public ledger is now a method the regulator recognises. For financial institutions the question is no longer whether but how.
In late November 2025 the Bank of Italy described the self-hosted crypto wallet with an image destined to stick: a genuine "electronic briefcase", able to hold high values and to keep them stable over time thanks to stablecoins. For European banks and CASPs, handling the flows to and from these addresses is no longer a matter of internal policy but has become a requirement prescribed by the regulator. There is one detail, though, that turns the perspective around: unlike cash, the electronic briefcase leaves traces. Blockchains are public ledgers and reading them is one of the methods the regulator considers valid for verifying these transfers. Crypfy does exactly this.