This can't be real

[aoluain]

If you take self custody of your Bitcoin there is no way anyone can enforce
this silly law but if you have you are still trusting a third party with your
Bitcoin they will have to enforce this.

Just get a hardware wallet, take ownership of your coins and HODL in
panic free peace and contentment.

[Ndabagi01]

Yes, under California's new law (Senate Bill 822, signed October 2025), idle cryptocurrency on custodial platforms like exchanges can be claimed by the state as unclaimed property after three years of no activity, but critically, the state will now hold it in its original crypto form (like Bitcoin), not convert it to cash, allowing it to retain potential value.

Not your key not your coin.

If you use noncustodial wallet, you will not be affected.

Just only after three years funds will be claimed by the government? That’s a very short time to claim ownership of untouched assets in an account. This shows how eagerly they want to take over people’s wealth when no activity on them. This is such an attack on those using centralized exchanges to keep their money and this news should further discourage them not to save money in vaults like this ones.

Exchanges will just join hands with the government to make this a profitable business for themselves. Maybe moving the funds from time to time will exempt such persons money from being claimed by the government. The best is not to keep money in exchanges and only keep money in noncustodial wallets to avoid this law being enacted on you.

[Fiasem20]

The news is damn legit,I’ve confirmed it from different sources online.This law that has been implemented in California would only affect those that are using custodial platforms to hold their coins for the long term,popularly known in the crypto space as not your keys not your coins.Most investors investment goal is to hold for 5-10 years and the law implemented states that if you aren’t active on transfers and other activities the government would consider your holdings to be an abandoned property,so to be on the safer side you have to be active but I still don’t recommend a custodial platform for the long term rather a noncustodial wallet is more preferable because the government wouldn’t have an idea on how long your coins has been there in your wallet.

[catnine1]

This is an attack on those who believe in custodial service to safeguard their coins for them, just like the few news stories of people who hold coins on exchanges, forget about it, and wake up after so many years, reset their password, and claim back their wealth. This time you will be making the state richer. Won't you hold for long? Use self-custody and protect your key to the wallet.

fr! thats a huge wake-up call for ppl sleepin' on self-custody.
forgetting a password to an exchange and gettin ur coins back? lucky break. forgetting a seed phrase and losing it all? thats on u. but at least the state didnt steal it.
not your keys, not your coins. this just makes that old saying hit harder. time to get a hw wallet or stamp those seed words in steel, fam.

[m2017]

Can someone please confirm if this is real? Someone close sent me this news this morning that you can't keep holding your coins for three years straight untouched anymore, the law will claim it.

Well, let them confiscate it, on paper. No one will give them the keys (voluntarily) anyway, because have every moral right to protect their property.

This can't be real right?  Right now I believe this is some made up nonsense, and if it's real we are all f

Even if this is nonsense, it could become reality over time. Governments will always try to find ways to extract resources from citizens, and given the rising price of bitcoin, their interest in this asset will grow.

You've noticed that countries are in no rush to buy bitcoin for their reserves. They will accumulate these reserves using the "internal" resources of their citizens.

The worst-case scenario is that those coins marked as "confiscated" after three years of inactivity will be frozen and confiscated from centralized exchanges under pressure from regulators. Exchanges will be forced to comply.

This won't completely prevent bitcoin from being circulated among users (using intermediaries in the form of centralized exchangers), but it will create some difficulties. For sure.

[sleepfirefly]

This is an attack on those who believe in custodial service to safeguard their coins for them, just like the few news stories of people who hold coins on exchanges, forget about it, and wake up after so many years, reset their password, and claim back their wealth. This time you will be making the state richer. Won't you hold for long? Use self-custody and protect your key to the wallet.

i can see that some would still resort to using exchanges but would remind themselves to initiate any activity so that their coins won’t be claimed

3 years for me is a little too short amount of time

[john_egbert]

This is an attack on those who believe in custodial service to safeguard their coins for them, just like the few news stories of people who hold coins on exchanges, forget about it, and wake up after so many years, reset their password, and claim back their wealth. This time you will be making the state richer. Won't you hold for long? Use self-custody and protect your key to the wallet.

i can see that some would still resort to using exchanges but would remind themselves to initiate any activity so that their coins won’t be claimed

3 years for me is a little too short amount of time

Or they would forget about it if they are newbies and get their little bags potentially stolen from them. Time will tell.

[Mate2237]

This is unfortunate and is totally against the principles of crypto currency because the secret to crypto currency investments has always been hold so any law or attempt to fight against this very important principle about crypto currency is an attack on the existence of crypto currency as a whole. I don't know the basis upon which this law was set up but for what ever reason it's totally wrong and should be reviewed by the state.



Just like the way that, you can't force anyone to use money that is been saved in the bank account, thesame way you can't force anyone to spend their crypto holding.passing laws like this is actually against the fundamentals right of crypto assets holders because this law is about dispossessing the power of the crypto holder by the government. It's clear that government wants to make illegal money from this law.

[livingfree]

i can see that some would still resort to using exchanges but would remind themselves to initiate any activity so that their coins won’t be claimed

3 years for me is a little too short amount of time

Too little of time when you're busy in real life and an employee that just works 2-3 more jobs.

But it's true that there will still people who would leave their funds in exchanges and even if they remind themselves to do something about it before the expiration.

They'll forget it. I think that I've read the same stories from old exchanges that they've left their funds, received an email that they have to withdraw but totally forgotten it.

While on this case, it's different because it's the government's initiative but the same scenario can happen.

[Achalugo BTC]

If you take self custody of your Bitcoin there is no way anyone can enforce
this silly law but if you have you are still trusting a third party with your
Bitcoin they will have to enforce this.

Just get a hardware wallet, take ownership of your coins and HODL in
panic free peace and contentment.

This is the most important thing for people to do after they have acquire the knowledge and the understanding of Bitcoin, the next thing to do, which is also important, is getting a good wallet that one can use to store their Bitcoin and before they decide to invest in it, they should be able to ask or verify if the wallet is reliable or not before they can take action on their decision because this will help and prevent them from falling into victims of circumstances or into pitfalls, which might make them to regret their actions or make them to want to give up in anything that concerns crypto.
So, for the benefit of their mental wellbeing, its better to verify anything you are doing that concerns bitcoin, in order for them to be at the safer side.

[finaleshot2016]

Government really finding their own way to gather more BTC in a freeway.

But then again, just use noncustodial, there are plenty of wallets nowadays, so this is not an issue for some because there's an easy solution. Actually, it's not a solution since this is the standard before everything about crypto get hyped. People are using noncustodial so therefore, we shouldn't have problems. My only concern is that, why would they pass such bill that is like almost stealing? Imagine if it's other investment asset like Gold, of course it's unethical to steal untouched gold just because the owner doesn't sell it.

This can't be real, it's like they're doing complicated stuff.

[Plutomanian]

We're not safe anymore. What doesn't the government trying to do? To steal our hard earned coin? Consequently, it does worth it? Anyone sitting in the government knows exactly how the crypto space operates and if they don't, they got close associates that would brief them about the whole space.

The creating of awareness about this news is something else and I strongly believe it's mainly some threat to lure away some investors. It's not just about using custodial wallets and noncustodial wallets.

[tread93]

Yes, it has been like that since few months ago.

This news was in June when the bill was passed
https://www.fintechweekly.com/magazine/articles/california-crypto-wallet-seizure-bill-ab1052
https://www.altcoinbuzz.io/cryptocurrency-news/california-to-seize-idle-bitcoin-after-3-years/
https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/25215143701441

Yes, under California's new law (Senate Bill 822, signed October 2025), idle cryptocurrency on custodial platforms like exchanges can be claimed by the state as unclaimed property after three years of no activity, but critically, the state will now hold it in its original crypto form (like Bitcoin), not convert it to cash, allowing it to retain potential value.

Not your key not your coin.

If you use noncustodial wallet, you will not be affected.

Yes its true unfortunately so dont keep your coins on the exchanges or in another's custody and also reside in California! California has completely gone to shit. Talk about a terribly run state. They should rename it to the State of Corruption! They take 50% of your earnings and have the worst governing the US has ever seen quite possibly.

[death69]

It's legit. Newsom signed it a couple of months ago.

The law says if your exchange account sits dormant for three years it gets reported as unclaimed property. State takes custody. You have the right to reclaim it later, no expiration on that. And they let you know in advance, too. This only impacts exchange held crypto, not self-custody. So if you control your keys, you are ok. But the fact that this exists at all is quite bad

Bitcoin was supposed to exist outside of these systems. Now we're applying the same abandoned property framework that is used to govern bank accounts. Which makes sense from a regulatory standpoint (treat like assets alike) but it also means crypto is just another asset class now. Practically? Most people won't be affected. You'd have to literally forget about your account for years. But philosophically it's a change.

The state can now take possession of your Bitcoin if you're not active enough. Even though they store it in crypto form, rather than sell it now, that still is control. That's still intervention. I guess we're finding out what happens when the system can't ban something so just absorbs it instead.

[Antona]

It's legit. Newsom signed it a couple of months ago.

The law says if your exchange account sits dormant for three years it gets reported as unclaimed property. State takes custody. You have the right to reclaim it later, no expiration on that. And they let you know in advance, too. This only impacts exchange held crypto, not self-custody. So if you control your keys, you are ok. But the fact that this exists at all is quite bad

Bitcoin was supposed to exist outside of these systems. Now we're applying the same abandoned property framework that is used to govern bank accounts. Which makes sense from a regulatory standpoint (treat like assets alike) but it also means crypto is just another asset class now. Practically? Most people won't be affected. You'd have to literally forget about your account for years. But philosophically it's a change.

The state can now take possession of your Bitcoin if you're not active enough. Even though they store it in crypto form, rather than sell it now, that still is control. That's still intervention. I guess we're finding out what happens when the system can't ban something so just absorbs it instead.

Spot on analysis this is absorption, not prohibition, they can't stop it so they regulate it into a familiar box, the "unclaimed property" framework is the ultimate sign that, to the state your exchange held crypto is just another financial account, Self custody remains the only true exit

[Flourishbae]

Can someone please confirm if this is real? Someone close sent me this news this morning that you can't keep holding your coins for three years straight untouched anymore, the law will claim it.

https://i.postimg.cc/59smMjfX/1000052648.png

This can't be real right?  Right now I believe this is some made up nonsense, and if it's real we are all f

Anyone from California can easily confirm it, I have no one living in California but other states in USA.

if this is real then it might actually apply to other states in the USA but for sure I don't think this is effective anyway 

[Hispo]

We're not safe anymore. What doesn't the government trying to do? To steal our hard earned coin? Consequently, it does worth it? Anyone sitting in the government knows exactly how the crypto space operates and if they don't, they got close associates that would brief them about the whole space.

The creating of awareness about this news is something else and I strongly believe it's mainly some threat to lure away some investors. It's not just about using custodial wallets and noncustodial wallets.

For now it is just the legislation of California, I would be very worried of something like this was passed in a federal level and all people in the United States could get their coins take by the state after a period of inactivity.
Though, in the best case something like that could backfire and people in the United States would start to massively move their coins out Coinbase and Binance, to their own cold wallets.

Anyways, all we can do for now is to make sure as many people as possible read these news and move their Satoshis to their own wallets...

[Rengga Jati]

Not your key not your coin.

If you use noncustodial wallet, you will not be affected.

That's why non-custodial wallets are so important, especially for privacy and security (although nothing is 100% secure, it's much better).

Even if many people still don't want to use that type of wallet, it means they should be diligent in using it or making transactions. A three-year grace period should be sufficient for some transactions.

However, if someone forgets, passes away, or something happens that makes them inaccessible, it automatically becomes a state asset. Haha. The government really knows how to make more money.