After Kraken’s settlement with the SEC over its staking-as-a-service program, there’s been a wave of concerns about whether other crypto exchanges’ staking services may be next on the SEC’s hit list. 🕵️♂️
Here, you can read last Friday’s Litepaper on the SEC’s crackdown on Kraken.
Many exchanges offer staking options: Bittrex, Binance, dYdX, Bybit, Coinbase, etc.
But all eyes are on one of the biggest names in crypto: $COIN.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong pre-emptively sent out a Tweet last Wednesday, warning that there were rumors of the SEC targeting staking:
1/ We're hearing rumors that the SEC would like to get rid of crypto staking in the U.S. for retail customers. I hope that's not the case as I believe it would be a terrible path for the U.S. if that was allowed to happen.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 8, 2023
Shortly after the above Tweet, news broke that Kraken was ending its staking-as-a-service program for U.S. customers and paying a hefty fine to the SEC.
Then, yesterday afternoon, Armstrong Tweets again. He affirms that Coinbase’s staking services are not securities and lets the world know they are ready to defend it in court:
Coinbase's staking services are not securities. We will happily defend this in court if needed.https://t.co/GtTOz77YV3
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 12, 2023
Is Armstrong giving out another warning before another SEC announcement comes out? Who knows.
But the Tweet by Armstrong sounds more like the business version of Come At Me Bro
Judging from the responses to Armstrong’s Tweet, the crypto community appears happy to see Coinbase taking such a strong stand in defense of staking. 😊