The crypto space has been disturbed by rumors of a possible U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ban on cryptocurrency staking for retail customers. One of the first to report the news was the head of Coinbase, the country's leading cryptocurrency exchange, which recently provided Ethereum staking to its customers.
1/ 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.
— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 8, 2023
John Deaton, long-time SEC fighter, attorney and XRP holder representative, also had something to say on the subject of possible tighter regulation of the crypto sphere. The expert said that the commission is waging an all-out war against the crypto industry, and the regulator's head, Gary Gensler, is not about to give up.
Crypto shutdown
Earlier, in late January, after the White House released a roadmap on cryptocurrencies, Deaton speculated that a final and most aggressive attempt to shut down the crypto sphere is about to take place.
Also, at the very beginning of the year, the crypto advocate shared his predictions for 2023. In it, he predicted that the SEC case against Ripple would end with a court ruling, one or more crypto exchanges would be sued for selling unregistered securities, the FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried investigation would reveal a lot of dirt, and Gensler would step down by the end of the year. We'll see what happens.