The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) staff has issued new guidance regarding the most common cryptocurrency staking activities, clarifying that these do not violate securities laws. On May 29, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance released a staff statement explaining that “Protocol Staking Activities, ” such as staking crypto on proof-of-stake blockchains, are not required to register transactions with the Commission under the Securities Act, nor do they fall under any exemptions requiring registration. The statement further noted that staking rewards are compensation for services provided by node operators rather than profits derived from “others’ entrepreneurial or managerial efforts, ” meaning they are not subject to securities regulation. Additionally, custodial staking cannot be considered a securities offering because custodians do not have a direct role in determining how much is staked; they act solely as “agents in connection with staking, ” the staff explained. The staff also indicated that ancillary staking services—like slashing, early unbonding, and alternative reward payment schedules—are not securities, describing them as “merely administrative or ministerial in nature. ” However, other staking types, including liquid staking and restaking, were not addressed, and the staff emphasized that their statement “has no legal force or effect. ” At Solana’s Accelerate conference in New York this May, crypto industry representatives called on the SEC to provide formal guidance on staking, highlighting the regulatory uncertainty faced by Web3 infrastructure providers. Support and opposition within the SEC Republican Commissioner Hester Peirce, who leads the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, welcomed the guidance, calling it “welcome clarity for stakers and staking-as-a-service providers in the United States. ” She noted that “uncertainty about regulatory views on staking discouraged Americans from doing so for fear of violating the securities laws, ” which “artificially constrained participation in network consensus and undermined the decentralization, censorship resistance, and credible neutrality of proof-of-stake blockchains. ” On the other hand, SEC’s sole Democratic Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw criticized the guidance, arguing it “fails to deliver a reliable roadmap for determining whether a staking service” qualifies as an investment contract under securities laws as defined by the Howey test. She stated, “The staff’s analysis may reflect what some wish the law to be, but it does not align with court decisions on staking and the longstanding Howey precedent on which they are based. ” Crenshaw added, “This is yet another example of the SEC’s ongoing ‘fake it till we make it’ approach to crypto—taking action based on anticipation of future changes while disregarding existing law. ”