New Jersey Rescinds Coinbase Staking Order and $5M Penalty
New Jersey has rescinded its cease-and-desist order against Coinbase staking, dropping a $5 million penalty without prejudice. Residents have been locked out since June 2023; California, Maryland, Washington and Wisconsin still restrict the product.
Coinbase customers in New Jersey are set to regain access to staking after the state rescinded its cease-and-desist order against the exchange's staking program, withdrawing a $5 million penalty and the restrictions that came with it. Coinbase says access for residents will return "very soon."
The withdrawal was made without prejudice. That legal term means the action is dropped without a ruling on the merits, so on its face it does not bar New Jersey from acting again. No date for the rescission has been disclosed.
What the order did
New Jersey residents have been locked out of Coinbase staking since June 6, 2023. The state's order was part of a 2023 campaign by the SEC and several states, which argued that Coinbase's staking product was an offering of unregistered securities. Coinbase handles the technical work for customers who do not want to run their own validator setups, and regulators held that this arrangement looked like an investment contract. Coinbase's position was that it provided a service.
New Jersey users are estimated to have missed at least $15 million in staking rewards while the order was in force. Coinbase has said no users have lost assets while staking on its platform.
A shrinking list of holdouts
New Jersey follows a string of retreats. The SEC dismissed its own parallel case against Coinbase in February 2026, and similar state actions have been dropped in Illinois, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Alabama.
Not every state has folded. California, Maryland, Washington and Wisconsin still maintain restrictions, and the broader impact of staking limits across the states still facing them is estimated to exceed $110 million.
What it means
For Coinbase, the restart returns a product line to one more state. The company's third-quarter results showed flat revenue of $1.22 billion and adjusted net income of $78 million, with most of the $719 million headline profit coming from gains on crypto holdings.
The "without prejudice" language is the caveat. New Jersey has dropped this order, but on its face it has not foreclosed future action, and four states still hold their restrictions. Coinbase has not given a firmer timeline for New Jersey staking than "very soon."
