The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking action. After a few years of studying how to regulate cryptocurrencies, it seems that their position has become clearer. And it’s not good news for crypto advocates. In less than a week, the agency activated several bans against some of the main companies in the industry. But that’s not what’s alarming, it’s the blocking point arguments against key concepts and technologies related to cryptocurrencies.

Goodbye punishment and ‘flexing’ against Kraken. The SEC has reached an agreement with the exchange to pay a $30 million fine and shut down the ‘staking’ service. This is a decision that currently only affects Kraken, but sets the position for what is considered the successor to cryptocurrency mining.

Introduced from Ethereum 2.0, the ‘staking’ system allows users to verify transactions based on their participation. It’s kind of like a dividend, but applied to crypto. But, The SEC evaluated that under this mechanism “users lose control”, they have “little protection” and complete information is not provided to investors.

Total ban on ‘staking’? The Kraken move may be just the tip of the iceberg. Since then, there have been open conversations that the SEC wants to block staking for all companies.

SEC chairman Garry Gensler explained in a video why the agency is against this service, called ‘staking’, APIs, lending services or rewards, and issued a warning: “Remember, if you have a piece of pie for two and you cut it into three pieces, , still the same amount of pies.”

In the SEC’s view, “staking” is a way to turn the user into an investor of the platform. This may be interesting to many, but as seen with FTX, it poses a risk for this platform to go bankrupt.

Coinbase will fight tooth and nail. So much so that Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong predicted to release an official statement on this subject.

They argue that there are many crypto products based on ‘staking’ from Coinbase. The exchange itself offers this through the Coinbase Earnings program and warns that they will “defend their position in court” while warning that “if this happens, it will be a terrible path for the United States”. According to the latest data from Coinbase, ‘staking’ accounts for just over 10% of the company’s profits.

“Today’s agreement is not law, but it is another example of why we need Congress, not regulators, to determine the appropriate legislation for this new technology,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association.

The SEC sues Paxos and targets another key concept: stablecoins. The WSJ explains that the SEC has also decided to sue stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust. Specifically regarding the offering of Binance USD, which is an unregistered value according to the SEC.

Not directly issued by Binance, the stablecoin is backed by $1 to $1 and is offered as a safe haven. In fact, we’re talking about the third largest stablecoin in the world, with over 6.2 million investors and $16.1 billion in capitalization.

The SEC’s position regarding Paxos has not been formalized, but it does not revolve around the stablecoin concept itself, but rather the fact that they need to be recorded. Like Jason Gottlieb’s notesThe new position of the SEC, a lawyer specializing in cryptocurrencies, is that “all crypto projects should approach and register.” But that’s a problem for dozens of projects, because, according to him, “all they get when they get close is a no from the regulator.”

“No one should be surprised if crypto goes to zero.” The SEC is not alone in this new crusade. The head of the Federal Reserve (FED), Christopher Wallet, warned that investors should not expect the government to take responsibility for their losses. And he points directly to cryptocurrencies, which he compares to speculative assets like baseball cards.

They explain from the Fed that it would not be surprising if the price of cryptocurrencies went to zero, as with FTX, Luna or UST. The US banking institution has identified numerous scams and corrupt platforms in the crypto industry and, similar to the European Central Bank, fears that the crypto industry will eventually corrupt the financial system.

It looks like the SEC wants to take action on the issue. The crypto winter can be very warm compared to the upcoming spring.