Crypto wallet Bitget joins Japanese industry group as self-custody debate grows

Bitget Wallet has joined Japan’s Blockchain Collaborative Consortium [BCCC], providing the crypto wallet provider an entrance into discussions of local blockchain policy.

This comes as Japan is currently thinking about how to differentiate between companies that hold customers’ crypto and wallets that allow users to control their own assets.

Bitget Wallet enters Japan’s policy discussions

BCCC is composed of 270 companies and organizations working together in various fields like blockchain, finance, and technology. These have different committees that are composed of decentralized finance, stablecoins, and financial services. 

By joining the group, Bitget Wallet said it will share its experience of operating a self-custodial wallet across global markets. The company claims to serve more than 100 million users and support over 130 blockchain networks.

A self-custodial wallet allows people to have direct control over their crypto, with the wallet provider supplying the software, but it does not hold the assets on behalf of the users.

That differs from a crypto exchange or custodial wallet, where the company controls the account holding a customer’s funds.

Japan is looking at self-custody with both technological concerns and regulatory concerns, said Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet.

“As self-custody becomes part of the formal policy discussion, the industry needs standards that protect users without losing sight of how these products actually work.”

Membership is not regulatory approval

Being part of BCCC does not grant Bitget Wallet a Japanese license or official approval from the country’s authorities.

The consortium is an association, not a government. It hosts a platform for discussion of policy recommendations of companies, but the Japanese authority decides the rules that become law.

Membership only brings the company into broader discussions about how Japan oversees crypto-related services in connection with wallet services.

The challenge for policymakers is that users control their own assets in self-custody. Some of the rules written for exchanges holding customer funds, therefore, will be unsuitable for wallets that simply issue the tools to gain access.

Final Summary

• Bitget Wallet has joined BCCC to contribute to Japanese discussions about self-custody and crypto services.
• The membership does mean it has a licence, regulatory approval, or confirmation that Japan has adopted new wallet rules.