The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has clarified that sure cryptocurrency liquid staking actions don’t represent securities choices, a notable step within the company’s ongoing effort to supply clearer steering on digital asset regulation.
“The assertion clarifies the division’s view that, relying on the details and circumstances, the liquid staking actions lined within the assertion don’t contain the provide and sale of securities,” the regulator stated Tuesday, referring to key sections of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
In its Staff Statement, the SEC outlined liquid staking as the method of staking digital belongings via a protocol and receiving a “liquid staking receipt token,” which serves as proof of the staker’s possession.
“Today’s workers assertion on liquid staking is a major step ahead in clarifying the workers’s view about crypto asset actions that don’t fall inside the SEC’s jurisdiction,” SEC Chair Paul Atkins stated in a press release.
The SEC’s clarification comes amid rising institutional curiosity in liquid staking exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with corporations like Jito Labs, VanEck and Bitwise urging the company to approve liquid staking methods for Solana (SOL)-based funds.
Liquid staking has develop into one of many largest subsectors in crypto, with whole worth locked (TVL) nearing $67 billion throughout all protocols, based on DefiLlama. Ethereum alone accounts for $51 billion of that whole.
Related: Crypto Biz: Digital gold rush intensifies as Tether Gold surges, establishments double down on BTC
SEC adopts pro-crypto method below Paul Atkins
The announcement follows the SEC’s launch of Project Crypto — a sweeping initiative to overtake the regulatory framework for cryptocurrency buying and selling within the United States. As SEC Chair Paul Atkins famous final week, the venture was developed in response to suggestions from the White House’s Working Group on Digital Assets
Since taking workplace, Atkins has led a extra lenient method to digital asset regulation, shifting away from the company’s prior “regulation by enforcement” stance below former Chair Gary Gensler. That shift included a May clarification that proof-of-stake protocols don’t represent securities transactions.
Under Atkins’ management, the SEC has additionally taken significant steps to ease regulatory burdens on cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Notably, on July 29, the company authorised in-kind creations and redemptions for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) ETFs, permitting licensed members to alternate ETF shares straight for the underlying belongings relatively than money.
The US crypto business can be gaining momentum from sweeping coverage reforms designed to make digital belongings extra accessible. These embody the passage of the GENIUS Act, a landmark stablecoin invoice, and House approval of market construction and anti-CBDC laws forward of the August recess.
Related: SEC ends ‘regulation via enforcement,’ calls tokenization ‘innovation’
