Holders of $APE in North America and various regions around the world have been shocked to realize that their ability to stake their tokens has been halted, as a geoblock has been put in place.
- The official site “ApeStake.io” was meant to launch within the coming weeks on December 5th, with staking rewards coming in days later on December 12th. Although, these rewards will be limited for certain holders around the world.
- In an official announcement from Horizen Labs, the firm taking charge of staking for ApeCoin, they let users know that “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.” Along with North America, countries also geoblocked include North Korea, Syria, Iran, Cuba, Russia, Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk.
- Although, the smart contracts linked to the staking program are not restricted, as such, the community has already programmed an alternative self-hosted staking client. This includes both DeFi and dApps alongside a number of high-profile, centralized exchanges working towards widening the access to the staking contract.
- Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club and ApeCoin, has been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yuga Labs state that they are complying with the SEC which could be the cause of the geoblock for the official site. Although they cannot control what the community does with the open-source contract, which is there to allow users to verify the legitimacy of the contract.
See Related: BAYC’s Yuga Labs Acquires Rights To CryptoPunks And Meebits
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