17 hours ago
A conjugation of US blockchain firms has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to supply wide regulatory guidance connected crypto staking.
The coalition, led by the Crypto Council for Innovation, requested successful an April 30 unfastened letter that the bureau dainty staking with the aforesaid clarity it precocious applied to proof-of-work mining.
Staked tokens are not a security
The Council argued that staking is simply a halfway method process for maintaining blockchain networks, not an concern contract.
It stated:
“The benefits of staking to a PoS web and its participants are clear: basal furniture actors are incentivized to lend to the information of the network, minimize the hazard of manipulative activity, guarantee information integrity, and bolster assemblage spot successful the network.”
It stressed that staking allows users to validate transactions, unafraid the network, and assistance nutrient caller blocks. In return, participants person token-based rewards. These rewards are determined by each network’s protocol, not by a centralized authorization oregon profit-sharing agreement.
The Council besides pointed to the SEC Division of Corporation Finance’s March 2025 connection connected PoW mining. In that statement, the SEC clarified that mining connected decentralized networks is not a securities transaction.
The Council asserted that this reasoning should besides use to staking, arsenic miners and stakers prosecute successful administrative functions to enactment blockchain infrastructure and person protocol-defined rewards.
Meanwhile, the missive acknowledged that immoderate risks exist, specified arsenic the anticipation of slashing, wherever stakers suffer tokens for violating protocol rules.
However, it noted that slashing is uncommon and not a defining diagnostic of staking’s economical model. Therefore, the Council maintains that staking should not beryllium classified nether securities laws.
Why is clarity needed?
The Crypto Council believes that ceremonial guidance from the SEC would payment galore stakeholders, including developers, work providers, and end-users.
They argued that specified clarity would region uncertainties for platforms that connection staking, particularly those connected to crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The Council further stressed that regulatory clarity would assistance the US enactment competitory with different global jurisdictions, which are moving faster to support innovation successful the integer plus space.
However, they cautioned against overly rigid rules that could bounds innovation oregon reenforce outdated marketplace practices.
The station US blockchain firms impulse SEC to clarify crypto staking rules appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.
English (US) 