RCS - Salomon Brothers - Addressing Crypto's Wallet Problem

CitigroupAnnouncement

Thu 13:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250807:nRSG3901Ua&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 3901U  Salomon Brothers  07 August 2025

 

Salomon Brothers: Addressing Crypto's Wallet Problem

Abandoned Wallets Present A Risk to All Digital Wallet Holders

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire (https://www.accessnewswire.com/)  / August
7, 2025 / Salomon Brothers today announced that its client completed the
process of inserting notices into digital wallets in connection with its
initiative to address the risks posed by abandoned wallets. An estimated .5%
of digital wallets are abandoned by owners who lost their private keys and,
according to the Wall Street Journal (https://pr.report/d1l4) , as much as
20% of Bitcoin and other digital assets is held in those wallets.

Rogue states and criminal organizations with significant resources pose a
credible threat to hack assets held in abandoned digital wallets. Older
encryption protocols are vulnerable to new technologies, meaning bad actors
could illegally gain access to abandoned wallets because these wallets cannot
be upgraded to more secure wallets. Blockchain experts have identified this as
a serious threat, warning that the threat is approaching faster than many
expect.

"Securing wallets protects the millions of wallets that are not abandoned,"
said R. Adam Smith, a Salomon Brothers representative. He continued, "risks to
all digital wallet holders include government-imposed regulatory limits on
crypto holdings in an effort to protect the integrity of crypto markets. All
wallet holders therefore have an interest in supporting the resolution of this
problem."

The process of securing the wallets included, among other actions, the client
causing the insertion of notices into long-dormant wallets. The notices
provide wallet owners with at least 90 days to respond.

Notices were sent to wallets that appeared to be abandoned. The client expects
that in some instances owners with private keys or other evidence of ownership
will step forward.

The notice makes clear that an owner can demonstrate the wallet is not
abandoned either by (1) using the private key to conduct an anonymous on-chain
transaction; or (2) accessing the Salomon Brothers webpage address provided in
the notice and completing the contact form found on the webpage.

Already, some owners responded to the notices by moving their digital assets
to new wallets, thereby indicating that the wallets were not abandoned. Last
month, owners of dozens of long-dormant wallets engaged in similar action to
indicate continued ownership of the wallets.

Salomon Brothers is publicly announcing this initiative at this juncture
following completion of the distribution of notices into wallets.
Unfortunately, in advance of this announcement, some bloggers and some coin
media incorrectly speculated about the notices and the motive of the sender.
This announcement is intended in part to address any concerns due to these
inaccurate claims.

Salomon Brothers' client plans to allocate a portion of recovered digital
assets to a fund intended for wallet owners who lost their keys. The client
has engaged Salomon Brothers to administer this arrangement. Details of the
recovery fund arrangements will be released in the coming months.

About Salomon Brothers

Salomon Brothers is an investment bank headquartered in New York City. The
firm is independent and is not affiliated with any depository institution.
Many alumni of the iconic firm are involved with the modern Salomon Brothers.
The firm provides services that include capital advisory and strategic
advisory services. Services include staking advice for holders of digital
currency. Learn more at: https://salomonbros.com (https://pr.report/d1l5)

Contact: A. Johnson, media@salomonbros.com

SOURCE: Salomon Brothers

 

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  NRAPRMJTMTBMMIA