Bitcoin tumbled to a three-week low Thursday, as crypto exchange Kraken halted its staking program in the U.S. and agreed to pay $ 30 million to settle charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The largest cryptocurrency BTCUSD, -0.16% fell more than 4% Thursday to as low as $ 21,850, according to CoinDesk data. Ether dropped 4.5% to around $ 1,572.
The SEC charged Kraken with “failing to register the offer and sale of their crypto asset staking-as-a-service program, whereby investors transfer crypto assets to Kraken for staking in exchange for advertised annual investment returns of as much as 21 percent,” according to a statement Thursday.
Crypto investors are worried that the SEC might file similar charges for other staking services providers, and hurt cryptocurrencies based on proof-of-stake blockchains such as Ethereum ETHUSD, +0.09%, Cardano ADAUSD, -0.90%, Avalanche AVAXUSD, -0.28%, Polkadot DOTUSD, -0.70% and Polygon MATICUSD, +4.31%, among others.