Catenaa, Thursday, August 07, 2025- The US Securities and Exchange Commission clarified that certain liquid staking practices fall outside securities laws, igniting optimism across the crypto sector and signaling a potential wave of institutional adoption.
The guidance, issued under the SEC’s Project Crypto initiative, specifies that receipt tokens representing staked assets are not securities when tied to ministerial or administrative activities rather than entrepreneurial effort.
The decision is being hailed as a pivotal moment for decentralized finance, enabling institutional investors to earn staking yields of 5% to 15% annually while maintaining liquidity.
Industry leaders say the ruling removes a major roadblock for pension funds and asset managers who avoided staking over regulatory uncertainty. Liquid receipt tokens can now be used for collateral, trading, or treasury strategies without locking up capital.
Marcin Kazmierczak of oracle protocol RedStone called the clarification a “watershed moment,” noting that Ethereum’s liquid restaking TVL stands near $24 billion.
The SEC’s stance is expected to accelerate growth in decentralized liquid staking platforms, particularly as Ethereum dominates with over 33.8 million ETH staked.
Analysts say the new framework encourages protocol-level automation to reduce human involvement and aligns with blockchain’s decentralization principles.
With the global staking market topping $60 billion, industry participants see the agency’s pivot as recognition that institutional engagement is critical to blockchain’s future as mainstream financial infrastructure.
