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SEC Says Liquid Staking Doesn’t Run Afoul of Securities Laws

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Participants in liquid staking, including depositors and providers, do not need to worry about securities law disclosures, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a staff statement on Tuesday.

The statement, published by the Division of Corporation Finance, is specific to liquid staking, where participants deposit «covered crypto assets» into a third-party staking protocol provider, which in turn provides receipt tokens to the depositors.

Liquid staking allows users to lock up tokens in proof-of-stake blockchains while still maintaining access to their funds through derivative tokens. These tokens can then be used for various DeFi activities. Currently, liquid staking across all blockchains has nearly $67 billion in total-value-locked (TVL), with $31.7 billion in Lido, according to DefiLlama data.

Tokens tied to a number of liquid staking protocols, including Lido, Jito and Rocket Pool, went up marginally after the SEC statement was published, but are still down on the day’s trading, CoinGecko showed.

To be sure, the SEC had previously published another staff statement addressing other forms of staking. Similar to the previous statement, Tuesday’s note on liquid staking is not the same as binding guidance from the Commissioners or regulations that have gone through the SEC’s formal rulemaking process.

However, the new statement does signal how the agency is thinking about the issue and suggests that any crypto industry participant who follows the guidance will not be sued by the regulator.

Tuesday’s statement is specific to what liquid staking providers do, «including their roles in connection with the earning and distribution of rewards, slashing, and the minting, issuing and redeeming of Staking Receipt Tokens,» as well as other ancillary services. The main caveat is that the deposited crypto assets cannot be «part of or subject to an investment contract.»

«In a Liquid Staking arrangement, the Liquid Staking Provider (whether a Node Operator or not) does not provide entrepreneurial or managerial efforts to Depositors for whom it provides this service,» the statement said.

«These arrangements are similar to those discussed in the Protocol Staking Statement with respect to ‘Custodial Arrangements.’ The Liquid Staking Provider does not decide whether, when, or how much of a Depositor’s Covered Crypto Assets to stake and is simply acting as an agent in connection with staking the Covered Crypto Assets on behalf of the Depositor,» the statement said.

Join the crypto policy conversation Sept. 10 in D.C. — Register now for CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation.

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CoinDesk 20 Performance Update: Index Drops 2.5% as Nearly All Constituents Decline

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CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 4248.74, down 2.5% (-109.09) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.

One of 20 assets is trading higher.

9am CoinDesk 20 Update for 2025-09-15: vertical

Leaders: AVAX (+0.6%) and BCH (-0.8%).

Laggards: UNI (-9.9%) and LINK (-7.0%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

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Pantera-Backed Solana Treasury Firm Helius Raises $500M, Stock Soars Over 200%

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Helius Medical Technologies (HSDT) announced on Monday it’s raising more than $500 million in a private financing round to create a Solana-focused treasury company.

The vehicle will hold SOL, the native token of the Solana blockchain, as its reserve asset and aims to expand to more than $1.25 billion via stock warrants tied to the deal, the press release said.

The financing was led by Pantera Capital and Summer Capital, with participation from investors including Animoca Brands, FalconX and HashKey Capital.

Shares of the firm rallied over 200% above $24 in pre-market trading following the announcement. Solana was down 4% over the past 24 hours.

The firm is joining the latest wave of new digital asset treasuries, or DATs, with public companies pivoting to raise funds and buy cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) or SOL.

Helius is set to rival with the recently launched Forward Industries (FORD) with a $1.65 billion war chest backed by Galaxy Digital and others. That firm confirmed on Monday that has already purchased 6.8 million tokens for roughly $1.58 billion last week.

Helius’ plan is to use Solana’s yield-bearing design to generate income on the holdings, earning staking rewards of around 7% as well as deploying tokens in decentralized finance (DeFi) and lending opportunities. Incoming executive chairman Joseph Chee, founder of Summer Capital and a former UBS banker, will lead the firm’s digital asset strategy alongside Pantera’s Cosmo Jiang and Dan Morehead.

«As a pioneer in the digital asset treasury space, having participated in the formation of the strategy at Twenty One Capital (CEP) with Tether, Softbank and Cantor, Bitmine (BMNR) with Tom Lee and Mozayyx as well as EightCo (OCTO) with Dan Ives and Sam Altman, we have built the expertise to set up the pre-eminent Solana treasury vehicle,» Cosmo Jiang, general partner at Pantera Capital, said in a statement.

«There is a real opportunity to drive the flywheel of creating shareholder value that Michael Saylor has pioneered with Strategy by accelerating Solana adoption,» he added.

Read more: Solana Surges as Galaxy Scoops Up Over $700M Tokens From Exchanges

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American Express Introduces Blockchain-Based ‘Travel Stamps’

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American Express has introduced Ethereum-based ‘travel stamps’ to create a commemorative record of travel experiences, as part of the firm’s revamped travel app.

The travel experience tokens, which are technically NFTs (ERC 721 tokens), are minted and stored on Coinbase’s Base network, said Colin Marlowe , VP, Emerging Partnerships at Amex Digital Labs.

The travel stamps, which can be collected anytime a traveler uses their card, are not tradable NTF tokens, Marlowe explained, and neither do they function like blockchain-based loyalty points – at least for the time being.

“It’s a valueless ERC-721, so technically an NFT, but we just didn’t brand it as such. We wanted to speak to it in a way that was natural for the travel experience itself, and so we talk about these things as stamps, and they’re represented as tokens,” Marlowe said in an interview.

“As an identifier and representation of history the stamps could create interesting partnership angles over time. We weren’t trying to sell these or sort of generate any like short term revenue. The angle is to make a travel experience with Amex feel really rich, really different, and kind of set it apart,” he said.

The Amex travel app also includes a range of tools for travels and Centurion Lounge upgrades, the company said.

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