New Jersey's securities regulator has withdrawn the 2023 cease-and-desist order and $5 million penalty it imposed on Coinbase's staking service. Coinbase disclosed in its third-quarter filing that the regulator told the exchange on Oct. 29 it intended to rescind the order, and the formal notice is dated Oct. 30.
What New Jersey did
The original order came from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities on June 6, 2023, and required Coinbase to stop letting state residents stake additional assets, on the view that the service was an unregistered security. Since then, New Jersey users have been unable to add new principal to staking on Coinbase, although existing stakes kept earning rewards.
The rescission was made "without prejudice," meaning there was no ruling on the merits. The state keeps the option of bringing a new enforcement action later. That matters: this is a retreat by a regulator, not a finding that staking is lawful.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on Nov. 2 that New Jersey users would "very soon" be able to stake again, without giving a date. Coinbase's eligibility page still lists New Jersey as restricted, so staking has not yet reopened.
The states still in play
The New Jersey case is the latest piece of a 2023 push in which several state securities regulators targeted Coinbase's staking product. According to Coinbase, five states dropped their actions in March and April 2025, and the exchange expanded staking in New York in October 2025.
California, Maryland and Wisconsin still bar new staking principal while their cases continue. Washington allows staking, but its case remains open, with a fine reported at $4 million. Coinbase's legal team has said those four states are "next" on its list.
Why the timing draws attention
The decision landed just before the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 3. Americans vote Tuesday, with first results expected as Asian markets open Wednesday. Prediction markets lean toward Democrats winning the Senate; if that happens, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a prominent crypto critic, would likely chair the Senate Banking Committee. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, one of the strongest Republican crypto advocates, is set to retire in January 2027.
Nothing in the reporting says the New Jersey decision is linked to the election, so the overlap in timing should be read as context, not cause.
What it means for traders
This is not a direct price catalyst. Bitcoin is trading around $76,400, down about 2%, and Ether around $2,240, down about 1.7%, as a chip-stock selloff pushed the Nasdaq 100 into correction territory. Broad risk sentiment and the election result are the main drivers right now, not a single state-level case.
What futures traders can watch is how the market prices U.S. regulatory risk around the election results: if the Senate balance shifts, expectations for crypto market-structure legislation could change, and volatility tends to rise during sessions with major macro news. When volatility rises, funding rates, open interest and liquidations can move quickly, so position risk management matters more than guessing direction. A position and liquidation-price calculator can help check risk before entering a trade.
For Coinbase itself, the remaining cases in California, Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington are the next thing to watch; see also the Coinbase review.