Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of cybersecurity requirements applying to hardware wallets used to store private keys for cryptoassets.

The Government legislated in February of this year to establish a financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets. This regime requires firms to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) where they are undertaking regulated activities in or to the UK. The new regulated activities include safeguarding cryptoassets that are in scope of the regime, and this extends to private keys. Firms authorised by the FCA must meet robust standards, including on risk management, operational resilience, and financial crime controls.