Crypto exchange Kraken on Thursday agreed to shutter its staking services for U.S. customers, and pay $30 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a settlement.
Why it matters: The top U.S. financial regulator has now spoken on staking, a process that compensates retail crypto investors for holding certain digital coins. The service offered on other major crypto exchanges like Coinbase.
What they're saying: "As part of the settlement, Kraken has neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations," a Kraken spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Axios.
"Starting today, with the exception of staked ether (ETH), assets enrolled in the on-chain staking program by U.S. clients will automatically be un-staked and will no longer earn staking rewards," the statement added.
The big picture: Ethereum staking validates transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. To do this, a user would lock up their tokens, or "stake" the native coin, in this case ether. They earn rewards in that token, in return for helping secure the network.
You can do this for any proof-of-stake protocols.
Kraken is among the top staking service providers, representing 7.6% of all staked ether, behind Lido's 29% and Coinbase's 13%. Though, Kraken can't unstake ether right now, because no one can.
Between the lines: The SEC's complaint specifically takes issue with pooled staking, rather than staking at large.
Zoom in: In order to offer staking services, an exchange like Kraken would pool customer assets transferred by them and stake them on their behalf, the SEC's complaint reads.
In doing so, there would be a contract between Kraken and their customers, that both transfers the customer's asset, and a promise on return.
“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,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in the statement.
Bottom line: It would appear the SEC appears intent on proving it can keep the troubled crypto industry in line, by whatever means necessary.
Get ready for a more outspoken Activision Blizzard, the company’s head of corporate affairs Lulu Cheng Meservey tells Axios.
Driving the news: Mersevey, in her role as Activision's top comms person since October, surprised many people last week when she tagged the Federal Trade Commission on Twitter, asking the regulator if it watched HBO’s hit adaptation of the PlayStation game The Last of Us.
Yahoo plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech unit, executives told Axios. The cuts will impact more than 50% of Yahoo's ad tech employees — more than 1,600 people.
Why it matters: The changes will end Yahoo’s years-long effort to compete directly with Google and Meta for digital advertising dominance.
The ATM is among the more ubiquitous gateways to crypto, found at truck stops and bars around the world, but that status hasn't saved them from the broader system's maladies, Crystal writes.
Driving the news: Top-5 bitcoin ATM operator Coin Cloud filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Nevada on Tuesday, just steps behind its lender, Genesis Global.
The Treasury Department on Thursday, in coordination with U.K. officials, sanctioned seven individual members of the notorious Russian hacking gang Trickbot, which has targeted U.S. hospitals and businesses in the last three years.
Why it matters: Sanctions are one of the few recourses Western officials have to hinder Russian hackers.
Podcasting has emerged out of years of rapid growth and a pandemic boom to face an identity crisis as its ecosystem contracts, advertisement slows and the medium eases into maturity.
Why it matters:Podcasts changed the listening habits of millions of people over the last decade, but the once-groundbreaking format has settled into a more precarious middle age.
Yelp has sent a strongly worded letter to a group of state attorneys general who earlier this week criticized the online reviews site for its labeling of crisis pregnancy centers, Axios has learned. The company is also modifying the way it labels such services for added clarity.
Between the lines: Yelp, along with Google, last year moved to more clearly label crisis pregnancy centers to distinguish them from agencies that provide abortions.
Walt Disney Company announced Wednesday on a call with investors that it expects to cut 7,000 jobs this year — or about 3.6% of its global workforce — as part of a broader restructuring plan and a bigger effort to save $5.5 billion in costs.
The big picture: In light of financial pressure from Wall Street, CEO Bob Iger reiterated his plan to make Disney more efficient while also bolstering the company's streaming business.
Nintendo is bringing some of its oldest handheld games to its newest portable platform, with the launch of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games on the Switch, the company announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: These lines of games were very popular in the 90s and early 2000s, but Nintendo hasn't sold them for nearly a decade.
Republicans used a Wednesday hearing they said was designed to highlight Twitter's role in limiting access to 2020 reporting on President Biden's son to air the party's grievances about tech — while Democrats continuously questioned the point of the session.
Driving the news: Three former Twitter executives testified Wednesday before a GOP-led House committee about the company's role in limiting distribution of a story about President Biden's son Hunter's laptop in 2020.
Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's former chief legal officer; James Baker, its former deputy general counsel; and Yoel Roth, its former global head of trust and safety, appeared before the House Oversight Committee.
The U.K.'s competition regulator has "provisionally concluded" that Microsoft's $69 billion bid to buy Activision Blizzard would harm competition in gaming.
Why it matters: Opposition to the deal by the Competitive Markets Authority (CMA), which could be finalized in April, could sink the deal. It suggested the deal should be blocked — or permitted if Activision Blizzard divests itself of its Call of Duty division.
While half of search queries can be answered perfectly well with a few web links or a short answer, Microsoft is betting big that AI-powered responses can better address the other half — potentially giving its Bing search engine a fresh chance to take on Google.
What they're saying: "Half of the 10 billion queries are going unanswered today, or at least without very good answers," longtime Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi told Axios in an interview Tuesday.
