Hey Waivly Crew! 🌊 MetaMask users can now stake Ether directly to leading providers. The SEC has charged Genesis and Gemini for offering unregistered securities.
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MetaMask launches Ethereum staking services
Popular crypto wallet MetaMask has launched its staking functionality, enabling users to lock up their Ethereum through the new feature via Lido or Rocket Pool to earn rewards.
MetaMask Staking allows users to interact directly with the Lido and Rocketpool protocols without any third party doing the staking for them, the developers announced on Twitter.
Staking via Lido and Rocket Pool requires users to lock Ether (ETH) in a smart contract on the blockchain, where it will accrue rewards.
Essentially, users can stake ETH on Lido and Rocket Pool and view their corresponding tokens, stETH and rETH. The service begins with a public beta through the MetaMask portfolio decentralized application.
“Users either choose to hold on to this stETH/rETH token for when they would like to withdraw their stake, use it as collateral in DeFi, or even swap it for another token (back to ETH or another ERC20)," MetaMask explained in a blog post.
Staked ETH and rewards will remain impossible for users to withdraw until Ethereum’s next hard fork, called “Shanghai.” Last week, Ethereum core developers confirmed they are on track to launch Shanghai in March.
SEC sues Gemini and Genesis over lending product
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged crypto lending firm Genesis and crypto exchange Gemini with offering unregistered securities through Gemini's "Earn" program.
In December 2020, Genesis, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), entered into a deal with Gemini to offer the exchange's customers the crypto asset-lending service. This was then launched in February 2021.
Under the agreement, Genesis loaned Gemini users’ crypto and sent a portion of the profits back to Gemini, which then deducted an agent fee, sometimes as high as 4.29%, and returned the remaining profit to its users.
In a statement, the SEC said its complaint alleges that the Gemini Earn program constitutes an offer and sale of securities and should have been registered with the Commission.
“Today’s charges build on previous actions to make clear to the marketplace and the investing public that crypto lending platforms and other intermediaries need to comply with our time-tested securities laws,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
The SEC further alleges that, in November 2022, Genesis announced that Earn users would not be allowed to withdraw their crypto assets “because Genesis lacked sufficient liquid assets to meet withdrawal requests following volatility in the crypto asset market.”
At that time, Genesis held approximately $900 million in investor assets from 340,000 Gemini Earn investors, the SEC noted, adding:
”Gemini terminated the Gemini Earn program earlier this month. As of today, the Gemini Earn retail investors have still not been able to withdraw their crypto assets.”
Earlier this month, Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss published an open letter to DCG CEO Barry Silbert regarding the withdrawal freeze. Silbert later wrote a letter to shareholders to address accusations against him.
The Waves
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Creator Special
Sandy Carter is the founder of Unstoppable Domain’s Women of Web3, a diversity and education group on a mission to equalize the playing field in Web3.
Before joining Unstoppable, Sandy was an executive at Amazon Web Services (AWS), where she drove next-generation partnering in cloud, machine learning, IoT, and blockchain.
Iván Casís Jr. is a multidisciplinary artist based in Argentina. In 2022, Ivan's work was selected to be showcased in various physical NFT exhibitions, including Exquisite Workers' Exhibition at 0x SOCIETY, Denver Digerati's Public LED Exhibition, and NFT Liverpool.
David Marcus is the co-founder and CEO of Lightspark, a company created to explore, build, and extend the capabilities and utility of Bitcoin.
Previously, he was the head of Meta’s crypto operations and the co-creator of the now-closed stablecoin project, Diem.
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