The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance on 5 August issued a staff statement saying that certain liquid staking activities and the tokens generated by those activities are not considered securities transactions under federal law. According to the guidance, no investment contract arises when users receive tokens representing staked crypto assets and their rewards, provided the arrangement does not involve the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of a third party. The clarification arrives a week after Jito Labs, Bitwise, Multicoin Capital, VanEck US and the Solana Institute urged the regulator to allow liquid staking products. The statement marks the latest milestone in the agency’s broader “Project Crypto,” which seeks to spell out how existing securities rules apply to digital-asset markets. By removing the prospect of registration requirements, the SEC’s position could accelerate adoption of liquid staking on networks such as Solana and Cosmos, where tokens let investors earn staking yields while retaining on-chain liquidity. Market participants have long worried that such tokens might be treated as unregistered securities, exposing issuers and platforms to enforcement actions. The agency cautioned that the analysis is limited to specific structures and that other staking services—particularly those involving significant managerial efforts by providers—may still fall under securities regulations. Companies offering staking products are expected to review the guidance in shaping their compliance strategies.