Despite attempts to police cryptocurrency through enforcement actions, United States financial regulators “are bound by legal reality” and Congress will ultimately decide crypto regulations the policy expert for the crypto advocacy group Blockchain Association has suggested. The association's chief policy officer, Jake Chervinsky, shared his views in an extensive Feb. 14 Twitter thread on the state of crypto policy. He noted neither the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) “has the authority to comprehensively regulate crypto.” 14/ No matter how many enforcement actions the SEC and CFTC bring, they are bound by legal reality: …

Cathie Wood’s investment management firm Ark Invest continues stacking Coinbase (COIN) stock amid the latest cryptocurrency market decline. On Feb. 10 and Feb. 13, Ark made its first COIN purchases since mid-January, adding significant exposure to the United States’ largest crypto exchange. Last Friday, Ark bought 139,105 COIN shares for the ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund (ARKK), according to an investor notification seen by Cointelegraph. On the same day, the asset manager also purchased 23,220 COIN shares for allocation by another fund, ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW). The asset manager spent a total of $9.2 million on these Coinbase stock …

Brian Armstrong, the chief executive officer of United States-based cryptocurrency firm Coinbase, is looking for lawmakers and regulators to discuss regulatory clarity in the crypto space. In a Feb. 13 tweet, Armstrong put a call out for anyone with access to the Dirksen Senate Office in Washington, D.C. to meet him at the building’s snack bar and “chat about crypto”. According to the Coinbase CEO, he was looking for “low sugar options” amid the selection of soft serve ice cream and toppings. "’I'm in Washington D.C. and had a meeting canceled," said Armstrong. "If anyone wants to come chat about …

Crypto exchange Coinbase's executives are standing up for its crypto staking services, claiming it cannot be classified as a security, and threatening to bring the matter to the courts in the United States. Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, posted on Twitter that the company will "defend this in court if needed." The move follows the agreement reached by crypto exchange Kraken with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Feb. 10 to stop offering staking services or programs to clients in the country. According to the SEC, Kraken failed “to register the offer and sale of their crypto asset staking-as-a-service program,” …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is ramping up pressure on the crypto sector. On Feb. 9, the SEC reached a $30 million settlement with Kraken over the centralized staking program offered to its users. The news of the crackdown sent Bitcoin (BTC) price to a 3-week low as investors became fearful of the regulatory enforcement. On the news, Ether's (ETH) price also corrected, cementing the token’s worst-performing day of 2023. While the overall crypto market was down after the SEC announcement, bright spots arose with decentralized liquid staking tokens Lido (LDO) and Rocketpool (RPL) and Frax (FXS) …

How coinbase transactions are structured Coinbase transactions are structured as the first transaction in a block, where the miner includes a newly minted amount of BTC as a reward for their effort in solving a complex mathematical problem to validate transactions and create a new block on the blockchain. Coinbase transactions have a special format. Compared to a regular transaction input, a coinbase transaction has a different set of values that do not represent unspent transaction output (UTXO). As such, in place of a transaction hash, a coinbase transaction will have 32 bytes, all set to zero. The output index …

Amid Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange standing up for crypto staking and economic freedom, the online community has urged the company to support XRP as well. On Feb. 9, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal claimed that Coinbase's staking program is not affected by rival exchange Kraken shutting down its staking services. The executive argued that Kraken’s staking platform was “essentially offering a yield product,” while Coinbase’s staking services are “fundamentally different and are not securities.” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong also took to Twitter on Thursday to declare that the exchange will continue to oppose the government when it comes to protecting …

Ethereum's native token, Ether (ETH), saw its worst daily performance of the year as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stopped Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, from offering crypto staking services. On Feb. 9, Kraken agreed to pay $30 million to settle the SEC's allegation that it broke securities rules by offering crypto staking services to U.S. retail investors. The news pushed down the prices of many proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain project tokens, in particular. Ethereum, which switched to a staking-based protocol in September 2022, also suffered as a result. On Feb. 9, ETH's price plunged nearly 6.5% to around $1,525, …

United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Hester Pierce has publicly rebuked her own agency over the shut down of Kraken's crypto staking program in the United States. The commissioner blasted her regulator in a Feb. 9 statement called "Kraken Down," noting that regulation by enforcement “is not an efficient or fair way of regulating” in an emerging industry, stating: Today, the SEC shut down Kraken’s staking program and counted it as a win for investors. I disagree and therefore dissent. Peirce's statement also slammed the regulator for shutting down a “program that has served people well." “Using enforcement …

The CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, believes that banning retail crypto staking in the United States would be a ‘terrible’ move by the country's regulators. Armstrong made the comments in a Feb. 9 Twitter thread which has already been viewed over 2.2 million times, after noting they've heard “rumors” that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “would like to get rid of crypto staking” 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.” Armstrong did not share where …

A former product manager at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has moved to dismiss charges of alleged insider trading, with his lawyers arguing the tokens he allegedly traded were not securities. Lawyers representing ex-Coinbase employee, Ishan Wahi, and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, filed a motion on Feb. 6 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington to dismiss charges laid b the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In July last year, the SEC charged the brothers and their associate, Sameer Ramani, with insider trading alleging the trio made $1.1 million using Ishan’s tips on the timing and names …

A proposed class action suit against cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Coinbase Global and CEO Brian Armstrong alleging unregistered securities sales was dismissed in the United States District Court of Southern New York on Feb. 1. The suit, filed on March 11, claimed that 79 of the tokens listed on Coinbase were securities being sold without proper registration and customers were not warned of their risks. The suit brought charges under the Securities Act of 1933 and Exchange Act of 1934 and used the Howey test, established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1946, to identify the tokens. The plaintiffs argued for …