SEC Confirms Liquid Staking Activities Are Not Subject to Securities Laws
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a staff statement clarifying that participants in liquid staking do not need to comply with securities law disclosures. Key points include:
- Liquid staking allows users to deposit "covered crypto assets" into third-party protocols while retaining access through receipt tokens.
- Total-value-locked (TVL) in liquid staking is approximately $67 billion, with Lido accounting for $31.7 billion.
- Tokens from liquid staking protocols such as Lido, Jito, and Rocket Pool saw minor increases after the SEC's announcement, despite overall trading declines.
- The SEC's statement does not constitute binding guidance or formal regulations.
- It indicates that following the outlined guidance may protect participants from regulatory action.
- The statement focuses on roles of liquid staking providers without providing entrepreneurial efforts on behalf of depositors.
Deposited assets must not be part of an investment contract for these arrangements to apply.