Kraken Resumes U.S. Crypto Staking Following SEC-Ordered Shutdown

Kraken says it is bringing its crypto staking offering back to the U.S.

The exchange, which shut down its U.S. staking service in 2023 following a settlement with the SEC, announced Thursday (Jan. 30) that customers in 39 U.S. states and territories can now stake eligible tokens via Kraken Pro.

“These clients will be able to participate in bonded staking, which locks up or “bonds” crypto assets to the network for a specific period of time,” the company said in a news release. “Kraken delegates staked assets to validators, which then handle transaction validation and block production. These validators then pass back rewards, minus fees, to clients who have staked their assets with that validator.”

Mark Greenberg, Kraken’s global head of consumer, called the launch an “overwhelmingly positive development” for the U.S. crypto space.

According to the release, Kraken was the first major centralized exchange to launch on-chain staking, debuting this service in 2019.

The company ended its American staking operating four years later, as part of a $30 million settlement agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator had charged Kraken with failing to register the offer and sale of this program.

“Whether it’s through Staking-as-a-Service, lending or other means, crypto intermediaries, when offering investment contracts in exchange for investors’ tokens, need to provide the proper disclosures and safeguards required by our securities laws,” then-SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a news release at the time.

Kraken agreed to the settlement without admitting or denying the allegations. The company continued to offer staking services for non-U.S. clients through a subsidiary.

It was part of a broader crackdown on staking and crypto under the Biden White House. The relaunch of Kraken’s service is the latest example of the crypto industry’s changing fortunes under the Trump administration.

Viewed as America’s first “crypto president,” Trump last week issued an executive order that, as PYMNTS wrote recently, touched “on many of the sector’s wants, needs and concerns.”

That order called for a comprehensive draft of federal crypto regulations, and banned central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). It also set in motion plans for a national bitcoin reserve.

Meanwhile, the SEC under Trump has rolled back a Biden-era order requiring crypto custodians to record a safeguarding obligation. Observers believe that this “will ultimately allow banks to interact more freely with the crypto sector,” PYMNTS wrote.

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