The largest US cryptocurrency exchange has suspended its staking services in California, New Jersey, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Coinbase management explained that the temporary suspension of staking services followed an official warning from local regulators. All four US states have laws under which such warnings are followed by lawsuits.
Regulators from the states of Maryland, Vermont, Kentucky, Illinois, Alabama, and Washington have already filed lawsuits against Coinbase. In these six states, Coinbase continues to provide staking services.
This whole series of events took place after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Coinbase, alleging that the trading platform was acting as an unregistered broker. Coinbase management maintains that crypto-assets staking services are not related to securities and urges the SEC to adopt a more prudent digital currency policy.
“Perhaps it would be easier to disable staking services in all the states that have already started legal proceedings against us. But we believe that this is wrong from the point of view of the law both for our clients and for the future of the crypto-economy. Americans in every state deserve access to the technology and economic opportunities available to people around the world,” the exchange said in a statement.
Coinbase called on the crypto community to unite to support the industry. Recall that shortly after the filing of the SEC lawsuit against Coinbase and Binance, the outflow of funds from these trading platforms amounted to about $4 billion in a week.
