In the words of Brian Armstrong, “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.”
In a recent Twitter thread, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong cautioned the community about rumors of the SEC’s ban on retail staking. He defended the practice of staking by calling it an important innovation in the crypto industry, adding,
“[Staking] allows users to participate directly in running open crypto networks. Staking brings many positive improvements to the space, including scalability, increased security, and reduced carbon footprints.”
According to him, the "regulation by enforcement" carried out by financial authorities is responsible for driving crypto platforms offshore.
Coinbase also published a tweet claiming that crypto staking needs to remain “decentralized, neutral, and global.”
Meanwhile, the SEC has neither confirmed nor denied the rumors.
The news came as the Ethereum (ETH) community braces for the Shanghai hard fork. The highly-anticipated update will allow users to un-stake their Ethereum assets.
The prices of governance tokens of Ethereum staking protocols have increased following the announcement. Lido’s LDO token has surged by 9.2%, while Rocket Pool’s RPL coin is up by 12%.
