Kraken relaunches staking in US roughly two years after settling SEC charges
2025-01-30
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Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken launched a staking product in the U.S. for 17 different digital assets, including Solana and Ethereum. 
The product is initially available to U.S. clients in 37 states, the company said Thursday in its announcement. The launch is essentially a relaunch of Kraken staking services for U.S. clients. The exchange halted its on-chain staking services for U.S. clients roughly two years ago amid charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Staking is the practice of an investor earning rewards for locking up a portion of their holdings to help with validating and securing a particular chain like Solana and Ethereum.
Kraken's Global Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg said in a statement that the company is "excited to ... resume staking with Kraken and play a significant role in bolstering the underlying security of blockchain networks."
Settling charges and paying a fine
In February 2023, Kraken settled charges brought by the SEC for failing to register the offer and sale of its “crypto asset staking-as-a-service program." Kraken agreed to pay a $30 million fine. 
"Clients will be able to participate in bonded staking, which locks up/bonds crypto assets to the network for a specific period of time," the exchange said. "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."
When Kraken was locking horns with the SEC in 2023, it was led by Chair Gary Gensler, who left the regulator upon last week's inauguration of President Donald Trump. The new administration is positioning itself as exceedingly interested in working with the crypto industry.
Earlier this month, Trump picked Mark Uyeda to lead the SEC until a permanent chair is confirmed.
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