Coinbase and Algorand give divergent reasons for staking reward suspension

cointelegraph.com:

Algorand Foundation CEO Stacy Waden took to Twitter to confirm rumors about Coinbase's decision to discontinue Algorand (ALGO) staking rewards for retail customers. Coinbase and Algorand, however, cite different reasons for the move.

According to Waden's tweet, Coinbase informed Algorand about the sudden termination of rewards for ALGO tokens on March 22, as the crypto exchange evaluates its portfolio of products and services following a Wells Notice issued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) the same day.

Hi #algofam, woke up this a.m, like many of you, to find that @coinbase killed rewards. They've now informed us that they are evaluating their services in light of recent regulatory scrutiny, and, for that reason, they will no longer support Algo rewards for Retail customers. 1/

The change does not affect the ALGO token trading and governance rewards for institutional investors, Waden added in the thread. 

The claims have been denied by Coinbase. "The Algorand news is not related," a spokesperson for the crypto exchange told Cointelegraph, asserting that halting ALGO rewards is not tied to recent regulatory developments:

Cointelegraph reached out to the Algorand Foundation but did not receive an immediate response.

Coinbase is the latest crypto company to be targeted by U.S. regulators in 2023. After receiving a Wells Notice on March 22, the exchange's chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the warning "comes after Coinbase provided multiple proposals to the SEC about registration over the course of months, all of which the SEC ultimately refused to respond to."

Grewal further said Coinbase has "repeatedly, formally asked the SEC to engage in rulemaking for our industry." This includes filing a