Generative Data Intelligence

US ApeCoin Holders Blocked From Official Staking Website

Date:

Eleventh-Hour Decision Riles BAYC Community

Horizen Labs, the company tasked with developing ApeCoin staking, has released an update regarding the upcoming staking feature.

Much to holders’ dismay, residents from several countries including the United States and Canada are prohibited from accessing ApeStake.io, the official website for staking APE tokens.

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“We are aware that geoblocking some users in North America is inconvenient for many members of the ApeCoin community. Unfortunately, in today’s regulatory environment, we had no good alternative” the company said.

The official website will launch on Dec. 5, and users will be able to start earning staking rewards from Dec. 12. Horizen Labs decided to shorten the pre-deposit phase by one week due to delays caused by the bug bounty program.

Third-party Interfaces

The Horizen team has said that they will not restrict access to the smart contracts used for APE staking. As such, any third party can create their own interface and a community-led frontend has already been released.

According to the team, numerous centralized exchanges as well as DeFi platforms are expected to offer interfaces to stake ApeCoin.

Regulatory Scrutiny

According to an Oct.11 report, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly probing Yuba Labs.

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The Miami-based organization has said that it is complying with regulators.

Community Backlash

One NFT enthusiast called the decision “spineless“, while also questioning the timing of the announcement, which came just a day before Thanksgiving.

Another user pointed out that the company could have avoided the backlash had it announced plans to geoblock US holders from the outset.

Meanwhile, a user lamented the fact that they had sold most of their NFT collection to buy APE tokens, with the sole intent of staking them.

“Having users just try different random front-ends and contracts is a big security disaster waiting to happen.” another wrote.

APE is down 25% in the past month.

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