Welcome back,
We all use crypto exchanges and wallets in our day to day life as we are all part of this industry. In this blog, I am going to discuss one of the major updates coming from Google Play Store about cryptocurrency wallets. So if you are someone who uses them or even someone who doesn’t use them, you should read this blog till the end so you get a clear picture of what is about to happen with them.
So in October 2025, the policies will see a change for custodial wallet apps. Now, what are custodial wallet apps? These are the crypto wallets that are linked with a crypto exchange directly. For example, Binance Web3 Wallet, Kraken Web3 Wallet, Coinbase Web3 Wallet, etc. Now, these wallets will have to go through the jurisdiction specific license to be approved and stay listed on the Play Store in a particular country.
What is jurisdiction license
Now, when I say jurisdiction license, it means that the wallet should have the official regulatory approval for the location where it is operating. So, for example, if the wallet is operating in India, then it should comply with the regulatory rules of India. If it is in America, it should go by the rules of America, and so on.
A lot of people are now concerned about whether their non custodial wallet will also come under the same framework. I am going to clear your doubts here as I have already researched this topic and read enough blogs and news. What I came to know is that the non custodial wallets, for example, MetaMask, Phantom Wallet, or Cosmic Wallet are not going to be included in this new policy system because they are not linked directly with an exchange. Only those wallets that are found within the exchange itself are going to be included in this new policy. The wallets where you control your private keys, like MetaMask, are safe from this policy and you can freely use them.
To be honest, even if Google Play Store's new policy system asks self custodial or non custodial wallets to comply with a jurisdiction license, it is going to be really difficult for them because there is no centralized authority controlling these wallets and that is why it will be a big barrier to bring them under the licensing hood.
By the way, even if the policy was applied to non custodial wallets and, due to some reason, our non custodial wallet was removed from the Play Store, we should not be worried about it. At the end of the day, we are all using blockchain technology, we are going by the idea of decentralization, and we can always use apps that are not listed on Google Play Store. You can also use extensions on your Google Chrome, and I think you don't need any licensing to use them there.
What if it actually happen
So even if a scenario appears where, due to some reason, these wallets are gone from the Play Store, you should learn how to use them either on your smartphone or on your laptop because you are now part of the crypto industry, and it is your responsibility to learn how to use different tools and wallets.
For now, I think you don't need to panic at all in case you were worried about the non-custodial wallet getting removed from the Play Store. They are going to stay there. They are going to remain safe. But in the future, I know a lot of countries’ governments will try to access even the non custodial wallets because that is the target of most governments coming from different nations, especially the country where I come from, India. They are only targeting people who are dealing in cryptocurrencies to charge them with huge taxes.
Learn and be prepared for the future
So, that's all for this blog. I hope your doubts are clear now and make sure that you spread this word with the people who are using non custodial wallets. The changes are going to apply from 29th October 2025, so we still have more than 2 months and in case anyone is unaware of how to use these wallets in case they are removed from the Play Store, they should start learning it today itself.
Thank you and Happy trading everyone
