Thursday, January 30, 2025

Kraken Releases Compliant Staking

Kraken’s decision to resume staking comes nearly two years after it settled charges with the SEC, which had previously forced it to halt staking services and pay a $30 million fine for offering unregistered securities.

This could be yet another sign that the crypto landscape is changing quickly under President Donald Trump's second administration. In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order on digital assets, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has become more friendly to the crypto industry.

Kraken restores staking services in US after 2-year hiatus

Kraken was one of the many crypto firms targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission under former Chair Gary Gensler’s leadership.

Cointelegraph

Kraken restores staking services in US after 2-year hiatus

SEC probes Kraken over alleged securities violations

In February 2023, the SEC launched a probe into Kraken for allegedly violating US securities laws by failing to register its staking service with the government agency.

The SEC argued that Kraken failed to provide proper risk disclosure to staking clients, who relinquish control of their staked tokens to validators to earn rewards.

Former SEC Director of Enforcement Gurbir S. Grewal also accused the exchange of advertising “outsized returns untethered to any economic realities” to clients.

Kraken settled with the SEC several weeks after the probe was announced.

However, the SEC sued Kraken in November 2023, alleging that the exchange operated as an unregistered securities broker.

The SEC lawsuit accused Kraken of co-mingling customer funds and fulfilling the role of exchange, broker, dealer and clearing agency without obtaining the proper licensing from government regulators.

Kraken fired back and argued that the SEC did not have the authority to regulate the cryptocurrency markets, as it was not given that authority by the US Congress.

Kraken, SEC, Staking — *An order from Judge Orrick threw out Kraken’s major questions doctrine defense. Source:* *Court Listener*

On Jan. 24, Judge William Orrick issued an order throwing out Kraken's defense that the SEC lacked the authority to regulate digital assets.

However, the judge also told Kraken’s legal team that they could raise the issue again at a later stage in the lawsuit.

Magazine: Godzilla vs. Kong: SEC faces fierce battle against crypto’s legal firepower

Investopedia

54 minutes ago

Kraken Resumes Staking For US Customers

Staking is a process by which crypto investors can pledge and lock their tokens to a pool which is then used toward validating transactions. Successful validators receive rewards for verifying information on the blockchain, and those rewards are shared with investors who staked their assets.

Kraken Pro users in 37 states and two territories will be able to stake 17 digital assets including Ethereum (ETHUSD), Solana (SOLUSD), Polkadot (DOTUSD), and Cardano (ADAUSD).

Read the original article on Investopedia