Bitstamp will stop staking Ethereum for US customers in September

According to a statement dated August 23, Bitstamp will stop staking Ethereum (ETH) services for US customers within a month.

The company stated:

“Customers will continue to receive staking rewards until [September] September 25, 2023, at which time all staked assets will be de-staking.”

Bitstamp added that the rewards and the principal amount (i.e. the initial deposit amount) will be credited to users' main account balances. The company also suggested that this process could take several days and could be dependent on network conditions.

The service changes seem to be leaving Bitstamp users in the US without any betting options. While the platform also offers Algorand (ALGO) staking, this feature is no longer available in the United States. Additionally, Ethereum and Algorand staking is not currently available in Canada, Japan, Singapore, and the UK.

The decision comes after the actions of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which recently scrutinized platforms offering betting services.

In particular, the securities regulator said that the staking services offered by Coinbase and Binance are securities in lawsuits it filed against each crypto company in June. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also forced Kraken to stop offering its US staking services as part of a $30 million settlement in February. Any of these actions may have influenced Bitstamp's decision to remove the option for US users.

Earlier on August 8, Bitstamp announced that it would stop trading seven cryptocurrency tokens in the United States due to changes in the country's legislation.

While Bitstamp did not explicitly name the events in question, the decision appears to have been a reaction to the ongoing SEC cases against Binance and Coinbase mentioned above. In these cases, the tokens were classified as securities.

The affected tokens will be removed from user trading options in the US by August 29, 2023.