🚨 SEC Sounds Alarm: Legal Storm Brews for Crypto Liquid Staking in 2025

The SEC just dropped a regulatory grenade—and liquid staking protocols are scrambling for cover.

Why Wall Street's watchdog is sweating: The agency's latest warning shots highlight 'unacceptable legal risks' in the red-hot liquid staking sector. No specific projects named—but the targets are clear.

Between the lines: This isn't about protecting investors. It's about protecting the old guard's 9-figure custody fees. Since when did the SEC care about 'risk' when banks were packaging subprime mortgages as AAA securities?

What's next: Expect a wave of 'educational' subpoenas (read: intimidation tactics) as the agency tries to freeze innovation until their banker buddies catch up.

The irony? Liquid staking's crime is being too efficient—cutting out middlemen who've been skimming 30% for doing glorified bookkeeping.

In Brief

• The SEC paves the way for a more flexible interpretation of liquid staking, without completely removing legal uncertainties.
• Each protocol will have to prove that it remains outside the securities framework, under threat of potential sanctions.
• Under Paul Atkins, crypto regulation is evolving towards a strategic dialogue, without abandoning sector control.

Warning about the legal risks of liquid staking

At the heart of attention: this famous practice that allows staking your crypto while retaining liquidity thanks to “receipt tokens.” A typically Web3 innovation, both agile, ambitious, but legally slippery.

Until now, the SEC left doubt hanging: was it a disguised securities sale? An undeclared financial scheme? Despite this gray area, some projects continued to develop, even mobilizing one million dollars to support the builders of Web3, in a regulatory uncertainty climate that remains heavy.

In its recent statement, the agency partially rules. Depending on facts and circumstances, some of these operations WOULD not fall under the 1933 and 1934 laws governing securities offerings.

In other words,. This is not an absolution but a first step towards a more nuanced and contextual reading of the regulation.

This opens a door but above all a minefield for the concerned crypto protocols and platforms. Each liquid staking model will now have to prove that it is neither a promise of guaranteed return nor a disguised securities sale. The fog recedes, certainly, but the legal risk remains very real.

Crypto regulation: a new era under Paul Atkins

Behind this change of tone is a change of man. The new SEC chairman, Paul Atkins, embodies a less repressive approach to crypto regulation.

Gone is the strong-arm method à la Gensler; replaced by a more open dialogue between technological innovation and legal framework. The agency indicates that certain forms of liquid staking would not necessarily fall under the current securities laws.

Since Paul Atkins’ arrival, signals of openness multiply: clarification on proof of stake, launch of the Crypto project, approval of ETFs Bitcoin and Ether with in-kind redemptions. Everything indicates a willingness to adapt, not to confront.

Maximize your Cointribune experience with our "Read to Earn" program! For every article you read, earn points and access exclusive rewards. Sign up now and start earning benefits.