Nothing is illegal yet. The regulations have been proposed, but there's still a 45-day comment period that hasn't started yet. I don't know if there are more comment/review periods after that.
Moreover, as I understood it, the proposed regulations apply pretty much entirely to those holding others' BTC, not to retailers. I didn't see anything in my (admittedly very cursory) reading to suggest a company that only takes BTC as payment for services would be disallowed from investing in, or making payments in, BTC.
> For bitcoin to succeed, it needs to become safe. It's still incredibly easy to lose your money if it's stored in bitcoin.
It's not that "bitcoin has to become safe" - it's that the users have to become security-minded. If it's even possible for that to happen in a mainstream way, it's going to be a very slow process. Like decades or generations.
If Coinbase goes out of business, you'll lose all your money. Coinbase is a startup, and >90% of startups fail. "Vault" is a marketing term designed to make people feel comfortable for no reason.
Given this major disadvantage, what benefit does Coinbase Vault offer to outweigh it?
I think this is illegal now in New York. The new regulation requires that companies keep profits in USD and not bitcoin.
For bitcoin to succeed, it needs to become safe. It's still incredibly easy to lose your money if it's stored in bitcoin.