Lido (LDO), a token that controls the staking of tokenized ethereum (stETH), has gained more than 7% in the past 24 hours, following a surprise statement from Coinbase co-founder Brian Armstrong about rumors that the Securities and Exchange Commission US Securities (SEC) will ban the staking service.
Armstrong did not further clarify what kind of rumors and by whom, but he called cryptocurrencies a “national security issue” for the US and stated that such a move would drive innovation out of the country.
Banning staking is like banning bitcoin mining and would effectively declare Ethereum illegal.
However, the SEC does not have that authority. Only Congress can ban the staking service or even Ethereum in the US. However, the SEC can require scrutiny, allowing them to decide whether or not to authorize a particular activity, but this only works for centralized companies like Coinbase and Binance.
Discrimination
As a framework based on decentralized smart contracts, the Lido token would not easily fall under SEC jurisdiction, with any move by the agency in that direction potentially increasing demand for the LDO token.
Interestingly, Armstrong specifies that the SEC wants to limit the service to just retail investors, which is essentially the public, while continuing to allow presumably legal participation of the 5% or so who make $200,000 or more a year, in fact the rich. .
This is so blatant discrimination against the middle class, let alone the poor, and so overt that one must be amazed at this explicit law for the rich and another for everyone else.
But in cryptocurrencies, they are all equal under the law of the code, so in a way many could welcome such a move, although it would still be sad for politically inactive Americans who continue to allow such discrimination.
Europeans would be the biggest winners as France and Germany have a very flexible structure for cryptos with Germany standing out with the most nodes (servers).
In fact, they even surpassed the US in the number of bitcoin nodes, probably because Germany has an underground hacking scene of unprecedented proportions.
SEC vs Cryptocurrency
Such a decision by the US regulator, it is rumored, would be highly political and could mirror US President Joe Biden himself as he is in charge of the SEC having appointed the chairman.
While the UK seeks a cryptocurrency-friendly law, Congress is allowing bankers to pass laws through the back door.
The broader global strategy for the crypto industry should therefore make Europe its home base, because while the US is not lost, the old bankers have a lot of influence and it is much more difficult to change the US from a global perspective.
This is different for Americans who have to live with the consequences and therefore have to be much more politically involved, but the cryptocurrency industry is much bigger than the US and this space cannot wait for anyone’s approval.
Matter translated with permission from TrustNodes.
Source: Live Coins
Barry Siefert is an accomplished journalist and author at The Nation View. He is known for his expertise in the field of cryptocurrency, and has written extensively on the topic. With a background in finance and economics, Barry has a deep understanding of the underlying technology and market forces that drive the crypto industry.
