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Coinbase crackdown widens as US states push to halt staking product


State regulators from California to New Jersey demanded that Coinbase Global halt its staking service, posing fresh and local threats to the biggest US crypto exchange.

The moves by watchdogs across the country coincide with the Securities and Exchange Commission suing Coinbase on Tuesday for a range of alleged violations. Both federal and state officials drilled in on Coinbase’s staking program, which offers customers a return for letting their tokens be used to facilitate blockchain transactions.

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Over the past year, crypto staking products, which can be highly lucrative for platforms, have become a flashpoint in fights over how to regulate cryptocurrencies. Although it’s not uncommon for state regulators to coordinate, Tuesday’s action stands out because of Coinbase’s heft in the market.

“The cryptocurrency securities market is not a free-for-all where companies can make up their own rules,” Shirley Emehelu, New Jersey’s Executive Assistant Attorney General, said in a statement.

Multiple state regulators emphasized that their moves did not prohibit Coinbase from offering staking securities, so long as it complies with state law.

“Our message to Coinbase is: Come on in, and tell us why you should keep operating the staking products,” Amanda Senn, Alabama’s securities regulator, said in an interview. Alabama issued the crypto exchange a show cause order, giving Coinbase 28 days to show why their staking products should not be banned in the state.

600,000 accounts

California, where authorities say residents hold more than 600,000 Coinbase accounts that use staking, Maryland, and Wisconsin demanded the firm stop the service immediately and come into compliance with state laws.

Kentucky, New Jersey and South Carolina also issued cease and desist letters to the crypto trading platform. Others, including Alabama, Illinois and Washington, initiated legal action that didn’t immediately ban the service, giving Coinbase a chance to reply if they wanted to keep offering the product.

At the end of 2021, about $28.7 billion in crypto was committed to Coinbase’s staking program, according to the SEC’s complaint. California residents had at least $1.28 billion staked through Coinbase, according to that state’s regulator.

Overall, Coinbase is the second-biggest staking service provider after Lido, according to DefiLlama data.

Earlier on Tuesday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said on Bloomberg Television that his agency worked with 10 states to bring its case against the firm. The agency alleged in federal court that Coinbase skirted its rules for years by letting users trade numerous crypto tokens that were actually unregistered securities.

Both the SEC and multiple state regulators alleged that Coinbase’s staking service amounts to offering a security that should be registered with relevant authorities. The firm has long insisted that its program isn’t illegal.

On Tuesday, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said that the company is evaluating the different state actions and will comply with any orders it has received.

The firm will take advantage of processes states may have to seek more time or immediately challenge the allegations in court before products must be taken offline, Grewal said in an interview.

“We are confident these staking products and services are not securities and we will avail ourselves of every legal option in order to press that point,” he added.

State patchwork

In addition to a cease and desist order, New Jersey’s securities regulator issued Coinbase a $5 million fine, and South Carolina’s issued a $4.3 million penalty.

Illinois’ Secretary of State’s Securities Department notified Coinbase that it will hold a public hearing on August 8 to determine whether it’ll permanently ban the crypto firm from offering and selling securities in the state.

“Because state securities regulators are independent sovereigns, they can do their own thing,” Urska Velikonja, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center, said in an interview. “You’re going to see a patchwork where some states will stay their case pending an SEC resolution, and some go their own way.”

Read more: Real estate payments in cryptocurrency could become more popular in UAE

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Almarai signs multiple agreements to localize jobs through training and recruitment programs

Almarai signed a cooperation memorandum with the Food Industries Polytechnic, the
Transport General Authority, and the Saudi Logistics Academy to localize jobs in the
food and beverages sector through training and rehabilitation programs ending in
employment. This came within the first international conference on the labor market,
organized by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development on 13 – 14
December 2023 at the King Abdulaziz Convention Center in Riyadh.

‘These agreements are part of Almarai’s corporate program for the social responsibility
to achieve localization in the food industry sector, which is one of the top priorities of the
comprehensive strategic plans in Almarai, especially since the company is one of the
largest working environments in the kingdom, with more than 9,000 Saudi employees,
including more than 900 Saudi female employees.”Fahad Aldrees, Chief Human
Resources Officer of Almarai, said.

He added that the agreements signed to train and qualify young people are part of the
integrated initiatives and training and rehabilitation programs for national human
resources in Almarai. He pointed out that the company provided about half a million
employee training hours during 2022, raising its retention rate to 90% during 2022.

It is worth mentioning that Almarai is the world’s largest vertically integrated dairy
company, and the largest food and beverage producer and distributor in the Middle
East. Almarai was ranked among LinkedIn’s top 15 Saudi companies for professional
career development for 2022.

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SEBA Bank rebrands to AMINA Bank and continues to write its success story

a fully licensed Swiss crypto bank, announced today its new brand identity: AMINA Bank AG. The group operates
globally from its regulated hubs in Zug, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong, offering its clients traditional and crypto banking services.
SEBA Bank made history in 2019 by becoming one of the first FINMA-regulated institutions to provide crypto banking services. This rebrand marks a new chapter for the company, which has proudly been in operation for more than four years. AMINA Bank is inspired by the same trailblazing ambition to lead the way for its clients and to write its own future as a Swiss-
regulated crypto bank offering services to its traditional and crypto savvy clients around the globe. The name ‘AMINA’ stems from the term ‘transAMINAtion’, meaning transference of one compound to another. AMINA is a brand driven by perpetual change, bringing together the various ‘compounds’ of traditional, digital, and crypto banking to unlock new potential and
growth for our clients. This vision of change represents the transformation of our clients’ financial future. Franz Bergmueller, CEO of AMINA, said: “We are delighted to introduce the world to our new brand identity. While we say goodbye to the SEBA name, we remain forever proud of the achievements made by the group under the former brand. “Our brand signifies a new era in the company’s growth and strategy; we are a key player in crypto banking and are here to define the future of finance. With our client-focused approach, our years of traversing traditional and crypto finance, we offer a platform for investors to build
wealth safely and under the highest regulatory standards.” “We are grateful to be encouraged by our supportive and committed investors who have been very helpful, supporting the growth of the company. We thank our employees in all the regions
for their dedication and client focus. As we look forward to 2024, our ambition is to accelerate the growth of our strategic hubs in Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, and to continue our global expansion, building on all the successes we have laid down over the past years.” Current clients of AMINA Bank (formerly SEBA Bank) will be unaffected by the rebrand other than encountering the new name; all operations will be business as usual across the board. The branch office based in Abu Dhabi and the subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore will subsequently apply for a name change to align with the head office in Zug.

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Uptime Appoints Mustapha Louni Chief Business Officer

Uptime Institute is pleased to announce the appointment of Mustapha Louni to the position of Chief Business Officer, a role specifically created to drive strategic leadership and client success. In this new role, Mr. Louni will assume responsibility for the global Uptime sales and marketing organizations and drive overall business value for all Uptime clients. He will retain his existing responsibilities overseeing operations in the Middle East, India, Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. In this elevated capacity, Mr. Louni is poised to play a pivotal role in driving Uptime’s next phase of global expansion through strategic initiatives to enhance market awareness of the dramatically expanding global service lines and delivery capabilities of Uptime that uniquely support the global data center industry in its pursuit of ever higher performance through elevated availability, resiliency, sustainability, and cyber-security of digital infrastructure. Louni’s appointment renews and expands Uptime

Institute 39;s 30-year commitment to advancing excellence in the data center sector on a global scale. “Today we are experiencing the next phase of the one-time, planetary transformation from analog to digital. This unprecedented, once-in-a-generation growth in data center demand is primarily driven by continuing cloud adoption, the new promise of AI, and the demonstrable fact
that hybrid digital infrastructure is here to stay for the foreseeable future,” said Martin McCarthy, CEO, Uptime Institute. “These complex and nuanced market demands require a visionary talent like Mustapha Louni. He is someone who cannot only deftly manage specific aspects of the business but also remain ahead of accelerating changes and trends. He continues to earn client
trust and respect by timely delivery on demanding commitments while he also inspires and energizes colleagues and clients alike. I am delighted to announce Mr. Louni’s new position and know that he will continue to expand the impact that he has already brought to Uptime since his arrival.” In 2014, Mr. Louni joined the Uptime organization in the United Arab Emirates, leveraging his extensive experience from roles at Panduit and Schneider Electric in Paris and Dubai. As the company’s first commercial resource in the Middle East and Africa region, Mr. Louni played a pivotal role in expanding Uptime’s presence. Within a year, he successfully established what became and remains Uptime’s fastest growing regional office. Under his leadership, Uptime has
extended his impressive trajectory of growth in MEA to the Asia-Pacific regions, augmenting the Uptime workforce with dedicated team members spanning more than a dozen countries across these regions. A new Uptime office has been inaugurated in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) this year, further fortifying the company’s ability to meet its commitment to sustained
growth and excellence and serve clients in critical, accelerating markets for digital infrastructure.

Uptime Institute began development of its proprietary and now globally recognized Tier Standards and its Tier Certifications 30 years ago to ensure that the mission critical computing needs of all organizations could be met with confidence and understood by executive management. Since that time, Uptime Tier Certification as well as other Uptime offerings including assessments and awards in digital infrastructure for ensuring business performance in areas of management and operations, risk and resilience, sustainability, and more recently cyber- security have gained global adoption. Uptime’s expanding success is based on delivering a
unique business service that is based upon unparalleled engineering excellence and technical mastery, while remaining vendor independent and technology agnostic.

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