Crypto exchange Bitstamp will discontinue staking services for customers based in the United States. In a message shared with Cointelegraph, the exchange announced the ending of Ether
ETH$2,238
Ethereum
Change (24h)
3.15%
Market Cap
$269.57B
Volume (24h)
$16.38B
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staking as of Sept. 25.
“Customers will continue earning staking rewards up until September 25, 2023, and after that, all staked assets will be unstaked. Rewards, along with the principal, will be credited to users’ main Bitstamp account balances," said Bobby Zagotta, U.S. CEO and global chief commercial officer at Bitstamp, warning that it could take a few days for users’ balances to reflect the changes.
According to Bitstamp’s website, it charges a 15% commission on all staking rewards. The monthly reward rate for staking ETH on the exchange is 4.50%; by comparison, the monthly reward for staking Algorand
ALGO$0.2507
Algorand
Change (24h)
4.57%
Market Cap
$2.09B
Volume (24h)
$96.57M
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is 1.60%. With the move, the U.S. joins other countries where Bitstamp staking services aren't available, including Canada, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The decision appears to be related to recent legal developments in the United States. In early August, Bitstamp
announced at least seven altcoins
would no longer be offered in the country. They were Axie Infinity
AXS$3.58
Axie Infinity
Change (24h)
4.21%
Market Cap
$566.69M
Volume (24h)
$25.18M
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, Chiliz (CHZ), Decentraland
MANA$0.2912
Decentraland
Change (24h)
5.06%
Market Cap
$565.64M
Volume (24h)
$39.39M
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, Polygon
POL$0.2556
Polygon
Change (24h)
2.96%
Market Cap
⸺
Volume (24h)
$11.36M
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, Near
NEAR$3.00
NEAR Protocol
Change (24h)
6.46%
Market Cap
$3.53B
Volume (24h)
$187.40M
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, The Sandbox
SAND$0.3123
The Sandbox
Change (24h)
3.44%
Market Cap
$759.23M
Volume (24h)
$61.60M
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and Solana
SOL$145.83
Solana
Change (24h)
0.83%
Market Cap
$70.96B
Volume (24h)
$3.69B
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. While the company didn’t specify why it suspended trading, all seven tokens were deemed unregistered securities by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in June as part of its lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase.
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Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain and the second largest by market cap behind Bitcoin
BTC$90,534
Bitcoin
Change (24h)
3.46%
Market Cap
$1.79T
Volume (24h)
$40.52B
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. A central issue surrounding the ongoing regulatory environment in the U.S. relates to whether ETH could be classified as a commodity or a security. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has
repeatedly called Ether
a commodity, while SEC Chair Gary Gensler
said at a hearing
in April that Bitcoin was a commodity but would not specify whether ETH should be deemed a security.
Magazine:
Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say?
