This week in the crypto world we saw a $4.5 billion settlement, staking come to MetaMask, and a date for an Ethereum ETF (sort of).
Didn’t think it would come, NGL.
Terraform Labs and Do Kwon Settle with the SEC
Terraform Labs and its former CEO, Do Kwon, this week reached a provisional settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), agreeing to pay a mahoosive $4.47 billion in disgorgement and civil penalties.
The settlement, filed on Wednesday, also includes a permanent ban on Kwon and Terraform Labs from trading in crypto asset securities, including all tokens within the Terra ecosystem. The settlement has proved to be the final nail in the coffin for Terraform Labs, which announced that it would shutter in the wake of the agreement.
MetaMask Introduces Staking Feature
Crytpo wallet MetaMask continued to impress this week when it announced an in-wallet staking feature. The platform, which started out as a mere crypto wallet back in the day, will initially help Ethereum holder with less than 32 ETH stake their funds through a pooled staking service.
Fans of other blockchains will hope that Ethereum is just the start and that MetaMask will add staking features of other coins as well, although the company will have to ensure that it doesn’t fall foul of securities regulations.
Ethereum ETF Coming This Summer
It wasn’t just MetaMask’s staking feature that got Ethereum holders excited this week; crypto’s favorite angry old man, Gary Gensler, revealed that an Ethereum ETF is likely this summer. Gensler, whose agency has taken Coinbase to court over its Ethereum staking platform given the implications in terms of securities, told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday that he envisions Ethereum Spot ETF S-1’s will be approved before the end of September.
Few people could have predicted this time last year that we would be looking at not one but two crypto ETFs, and yet here we are.
