As the cryptocurrency ecosystem continues to mature, one lingering area of uncertainty has remained front and center: staking. While the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slowly begun clarifying its stance on various crypto assets, industry leaders say there’s still a crucial gap in regulatory guidance when it comes to staking services. And that gap is becoming more urgent to fill.
At the recent Solana “Accelerate” conference in New York, Allison Muehr, the head of staking policy for the Crypto Council for Innovation, emphasized that defining the regulatory contours of staking has become a priority for the industry.
“We’re maybe a quarter of the way there,” Muehr shared during a panel discussion. “The SEC has started engaging with us more constructively over the past few months than it has over the past four years combined, but the absence of formal guidance is still a major roadblock.”
SEC Is Talking — But Still Not Acting on Staking
Although the SEC has made incremental progress on clarifying how it views certain crypto assets, like stablecoins and memecoins, it has remained notably silent on how staking should be regulated. This has left infrastructure providers, exchanges, and even institutional investors in a regulatory gray zone.
This regulatory ambiguity is particularly problematic for blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, where staking is a key part of securing the network and distributing rewards. Without guidance, businesses offering staking services are left to navigate a minefield of potential enforcement risks, something the SEC hasn’t hesitated to pursue in the past.
Under the previous U.S. administration, the SEC initiated enforcement actions against several companies offering staking, claiming those services resembled unregistered securities offerings. But with President Trump now back in office, the tone has shifted — if not the substance.
In early 2025, the agency issued memecoin-specific guidance, clarifying they don’t meet the standard of an investment contract. Soon after, it offered more detail around stablecoins, stating that those used solely for payments wouldn’t be treated as securities either. But staking, despite its growing importance in the crypto economy, remains a conspicuous omission.
ETF Hopes and Broader Policy Goals
There’s hope on the horizon, though. Muehr said she believes the SEC may eventually give the green light for staking features to be integrated into crypto ETFs — including potential Solana-based funds. “The first step is getting the SEC comfortable with the fund structure,” she explained. “We’ve had some surprisingly productive meetings with them recently, and that’s a good sign.”
Muehr went on to express cautious optimism that a Solana ETF — and possibly even a staked version of it — could be approved in the U.S. in the near future. If that happens, it would mark a major milestone for both the staking and ETF sectors of the crypto industry.
But the SEC isn’t the only regulatory body the industry is watching closely. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has also weighed in on staking — and not in a way the industry supports. According to a recent IRS statement, rewards earned from staking are considered “service income,” a position Muehr and other stakeholders strongly disagree with.
“We’re actively engaging with the IRS as well,” she said. “Labeling staking rewards as service income creates confusion and misrepresents the nature of how those rewards are generated. We believe this interpretation doesn’t align with the reality of decentralized networks.”
Final Thoughts
As crypto matures and mainstream adoption continues, the call for regulatory clarity has never been louder — especially in areas like staking that sit at the core of blockchain utility. While there are signs of progress, the industry is still waiting on definitive answers from regulators like the SEC and IRS.
Until then, staking providers, ETF hopefuls, and investors alike remain in limbo — pushing for clarity, but still building as they wait.
