Crypto Experts Speculate SEC’s Latest Actions Against Bitcoin To Be Coordinated Attacks

Currently, the US crypto market is facing immense pushback from financial regulatory authorities. One of the main reasons for the latest string of cases is that crypto exchanges are offering a staking feature. The Securities and Exchange Commission has decided to roll out regulations with regard to staking. Unfortunately, crypto investors and experts don’t agree with their recent line of action.

In the cryptocurrency market, staking is a practice in which crypto holders volunteer to validate transactions on the blockchain. To ensure that volunteers don’t engage in any kind of fraudulent behavior, their crypto holdings are locked up for a specific period of time. Staking is used by various blockchains like Ethereum to create a secure public record.

In response to the continuous pushback from federal agencies, Nic Carter gave his opinion. As the founder of Coinmeetrics and prominent venture capitalist, Carter is regarded as an expert on financial conditions. His insight is that the SEC’s response is part of a much bigger goal.

Policymakers Launching a War Against Cryptocurrency

Carter opined that the country’s traditional banks and policymakers are leading a war against the crypto industry. He also outlined why he thinks that their latest actions are part of a bigger plan. He noticed that since the start of the year, the regulatory bodies have launched an operation to target the US crypto space.

According to him, it’s a well-coordinated effort to take power away from the industry. This way, they will eliminate its connection with the current banking system. He even put together a summary of events to explain why he thinks this is the case.

He believes that a handful of digital assets and cryptocurrencies might brave the harsh conditions posed by regulatory authorities. Moreover, he thinks that countries that act as offshore havens for cryptocurrencies will continue to offer services, while the US will fall behind.

In his statement, he claims that it’s a coordinated pattern involving various regulators and federal banks. The end goal is to stifle innovation and deny the crypto market banking access.

SEC Pushes Kraken to Shut Down Staking Operations in the US

One of the primary examples of the SEC’s actions against the crypto market is that of the settlement against Kraken. On Thursday, the SEC voted on the million-dollar settlement in a meeting that took place behind closed doors. After the announcement, the SEC announced that Kraken would be pulling down the shutters on its staking programs. This would prevent US customers from accessing services, which came off to many as unfair.

Kraken provided users with numerous staking-related services. This included a lending product that could produce yields of up to 24%. Based on a statement from one industry expert, this service will be shut down as well.

According to the Kraken website, the staking service offered users a 20% APY. It also claimed to send them staking rewards two times a week. One report by Bloomberg stated that Kraken was close to reaching a settlement with the SEC after it was charged for offering unregistered securities.

SEC May Prevent Retail Investors From Staking

The SEC’s vote on the settlement comes one day after Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, tweeted about rumors that the SEC plans to eliminate staking options entirely. In the tweet, he says that the plan is to keep retail investors from purchasing staking products.

The SEC chair, Gary Gensler has stated before that staking through companies like Kraken would meet the requirements of the Howey Test. This is a very old test used to decide if something can be labeled as security in the US.

Back then, he claimed that staking is similar to lending. In fact, the SEC has brought charges against crypto lending companies and settled them as well. One example is that of BlockFi, a crypto lender that is now bankrupt.