The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed a new interpretive rule that would require both cryptocurrency platforms and video game companies to reimburse customers for stolen digital assets under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA). This is a marked departure from the current sad state of affairs, where crypto platforms that receive complaints from customers whose accounts were emptied typically shrug and say “guess you shouldn’t have fallen for a scam”, then refer them to local law enforcement who in turn shrug and say “we can’t trace stolen crypto”. It’s also a big difference for some video game companies, whose responses to stolen in-game funds vary dramatically based on the game company and, seemingly, the mood of whichever customer support representative you are lucky or unlucky enough to reach on any given day. The CFPB is not alone in their interpretation of the EFTA. A federal judge interpreted the law the same way in a decision in the Southern District of New York, stemming from a class action lawsuit that was filed after flawed implementation of multi-factor authentication by the Uphold cryptocurrency exchange contributed to multiple customers losing tens of thousands of dollars in assets. Although Uphold never wound up paying much in damages, the opinion in the case included that “personal asset accounts that are investment accounts like ... the cryptocurrency accounts at issue here, are accounts covered by the EFTA”, and noted that the EFTA does n
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